Uncommon Curses
by AngelsMinion
Summary: RomanceAngstHumor Two brilliant students(Lily and James), they hate each other(DUH). But they're creative, spell here spell there! Creating curses just so they can send each other to the Hospital Wing! FlowerJames TenticalLily! RR .O Complete
1. Curses in the Corridors

A/N: Dear reader, you might not agree with my takes on this romance, but please don't hurt me.  
  
Disclaimer: If you believe that I own anything relating to Harry Potter you are wrong, and need to see a psychiatrist. Thank you and good night. (or evening, or morning, or afternoon, whatever it happens to be)  
  
Lily Evans walked down the hall with her best friend, Therese Smythe (Teri). They were headed to Charms, Lily's best subject.  
  
"Teri, hurry up. We're going to be late." Lily was in a bad mood, and wanted to get to class so that they wouldn't have to deal with the infamous Marauders in the corridors.  
  
Lily was one of the top students in her class and was brilliant at charms, curses, transfiguration, and everything else. That wasn't all, since she was a muggle-born; her parents insisted that she keep up with her muggle schooling. Lily was six-teen and just beginning her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had Long red hair, bright green eyes, a slender figure, and was 5'4".  
  
Her best friend Teri was also sixteen; Teri had striking blue eyes, long black hair, a slender figure like Lily, but unlike Lily, Teri was tall, almost 5'9". Teri was smart, not as smart as Lily but close.  
  
The two of them were the most popular girls in school, and were called the Emerald and Sapphire by their admirers who claimed that they got lost in their eyes every time they were around. Neither of them had ever been on a date, and hated being followed around by what they called a "gaggle of guys".  
  
The Marauders were like male replicas of them, with the exception that there were four of them. (A/N: I don't like Peter, so he will only be making cameo appearances in this fic, also I can't stand to have any of the Marauders ugly so Peter will not be an ugly cow.) James was the unofficial leader, he had dark messy hair, was 6'4", and according to his admirers, melted chocolate brown eyes. Sirius was the player, he had black hair, and black eyes, was 6'2", and an athletic build. Remus was, unbeknownst to him, the heartbreaker; he had never dated, but was seen as the sweetie of the pack. He had sandy blonde hair, was precisely 6' tall, he had faded blue eyes, and the one that kept the pranks from getting them all expelled. And lastly, there was Peter. Peter was only 5'10", he had cropped blonde hair, soft brown eyes, which oddly enough girls thought were sweet, Peter was the look-out, he also collected information while, James and Sirius were planning pranks, and Remus was doing his best to make sure that the prank would not go awry and get them in trouble.  
  
Lily and Teri were both animangi, Lily was a vixen, alias: Foxy. And Teri was an owl, alias: Wings. Lily and Teri had explored the forest to their hearts content and were in the process of investigating the mountains just outside of Hogsmeade.  
  
"I'm going Foxy, just hold up, I got a rock in my shoe," said Teri.  
  
"I'm waiting. I don't want to get caught with the Marauders again. The last time that happened I was turned into a monster with tentacles, extra ears, eyes and noses, my arms were bent at crooked angles, and I was missing a leg."  
  
"But it was funny, and you didn't see what you did to James. And you didn't see all the hate mail that he got from your male admirers, several of them I think had undiluted Pus in them."  
  
"Wings, you were too busy laughing at him to notice all the hate mail I got. Several of the envelops contained Howlers, although they were all very petty. And I noticed that their senders got detention because their voices were recognized."  
  
Just then, the Marauders came up. James having recovered from getting his hair turned pink that morning by Lily.  
  
"Why if it isn't the Gems of Hogwarts," said James, his pride a little sore from the arriving at breakfast with a head of pink hair.  
  
"Potter if you don't leave now I'm going to make sure that it takes longer than three days for Madame Pomfrey to undo all the curses. I have several new ones that I would like to try out," replied Lily.  
  
By now everyone new that if Lily and James even passed in the corridors to get out of the way. Lily and James each had very explosive tempers, and even thought they each had very good aim, they couldn't be counted on to not hit any bystanders.  
  
"We have Charms and since we're all here I suggest that we go inside," said Remus trying to get everyone to calm down, preferable before anyone started to curse anyone else, namely Lily and James.  
  
Everyone besides the Marauders, and Lily and Teri had either ducked into the classroom by now, or were hiding around a corner waiting for the all clear.  
  
No one was listening to Remus and Lily and James had already drawn their wands.  
  
"Uh-oh," squeaked Peter. He and Remus ducked into the classroom, and were watching like everyone else from the safe confines of the room.  
  
Teri and Sirius were both behind their friend, lending their un-needed moral support.  
  
"Krishindom," hollered Lily. James started to sprout yellow daisies all over his body.  
  
"Jershingdar," yelled James, Lily suddenly had another eye.  
  
Now, Teri and Sirius both new that you could just yell Finite Incantantem and ordinarily everything would go back to normal, but these were no ordinary curses. These were ones that had been specially created to resist Finite Incantantem.  
  
"Tenticartis," cried James, Lily suddenly had about thirty tentacles growing out of her waist, making her look like some kind of mutant octopus.  
  
"Petinmahry," bellowed Lily, James started to turn into a petunia.  
  
This exchanging of curses, transfigurations, and charms went on for several more minutes until, Teri and Sirius decided to end it by yelling "Expelliarmus," both Lily's and James' wands flew out of their hands.  
  
Professor Flitwick came out of the classroom, now that it was all clear, and said, "Lily, James, both of you will go to the Hospital Wing, and Madame Pomfrey will figure the two of you out, today we are going to be doing review lucky for you, I will send your homework to you via Ms. Smythe and Mr. Black."  
  
Just then, someone looked around the corner, and seeing that the unofficial duel was over called, "All clear." Students came rushing down the corridors, talking about the latest duel.  
  
"Oh, and Ms Evans, Mr. Potter by the looks of it both of you are going to be in the Hospital Wing for a while, so you won't have to worry about detentions, and I am going to deduct five points each for magic in the corridors. Nice work of the spells though. I do believe that some of those are rather tricky, not many six-teen year olds could have pulled them off. And please let Madame Pomfrey know the counter curses to the spells that you two made up," turning back to the rest of the class, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please be seated I believe that we have review session to begin." 


	2. Weekly Routine

Lily and James walked to the Hospital Wing in silence; Lily berating herself for not using some of the curses that she had discovered, and James was, metaphorically, beating himself up about letting some of the older curses slip past his defenses.  
  
James resembled a giant flower with several oddities that shouldn't have been there, and being too light to push the door open he waited for Lily to lean against the door so that they could get inside.  
  
Lily was missing a leg so she decided against kicking to knock on the door, she leaned against the door and slowly the door moved to reveal a room filled with beds, separating curtains, cabinets filled with medicines, bedside tables, and a door off to the side.  
  
"Madame Pomfrey," called Lily, "it's me and James again, er, we were trying out some new curses, and well, we kind of need your help, because I'm not going to tell him the counter curses."  
  
With that a short plump woman coming out of the office with a piece of parchment, "Oh dear, Lily, James, I need you to tell me the curses you used on each other. Both of you sit down on one of the beds." Madame Pomfrey went over to James and he began telling her the curses he used, she wrote them down on a piece of parchment, and after she had crossed referenced them to the ones that she already had she asked him for the counter curses to the new ones. She wrote them all down on the parchment, and went over to Lily to undo all the curses and question her about the ones that she had used, and the counter curses to the new ones.  
  
She came over to James, un-did the curses and told them to each lie down.  
  
It was common knowledge that Madame Pomfrey never let anyone out of the Hospital Wing until she was absolutely certain that they were in good health. She did another check to make sure that she hadn't missed any of the spells, and told them to stay put while she looked for some strengthening medicine.  
  
While she was busy, Teri, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all came into the Hospital Wing. Teri and Sirius came bearing the homework that they had been assigned. And Remus and Peter were there to offer their presence.  
  
"Thanks Wings," Lily said looking over the homework they had been assigned, "it's going to be a boring night, all of this I mastered in third year."  
  
"So, Jamsie, I hope you like being bored, Flitwick assigned tons of homework, and since we already know all of it and have for a while we're going to be bored out of our minds," said Sirius.  
  
Remus walked over to the bed where Lily had begun her homework, and said, "Foxy, I was wondering if you could help me with the Potions homework that we were assigned yesterday."  
  
"Oh sure Remus, I'd be happy to," replied Lily.  
  
"Thanks Foxy."  
  
Remus was the only boy that Lily and Teri put up with; they had become friends back in first year when Teri and Lily had found out about Remus being a werewolf. They had confronted him, and he had admitted it, from there they had become friends, in turn Remus was the only one besides the two of them, and perhaps Dumbledore, who knew they were illegal animangi.  
  
Madame Pomfrey came back bearing two cups of foul looking liquid, "Here you two drink this, and you can leave."  
  
Neither Lily nor James were new to the purplish blue liquid, and neither of them actually drank the stuff, they had taken some just yesterday, and the affects of the potion lasted two weeks, they pretended to drink it, with looks of disgust on their faces, and dumped the potion and the cups in the trash on their way out.  
  
Classes were over, so Lily and Teri took their stuff up to the Library.  
  
In the Library they set their stuff down on the table in the farthest corner and began their homework.  
  
Three hours later, Teri stretched her arms, and looked at her watch, "Oy, Foxy, it's six already, and I know that you've already finished your homework. I'm putting this junk away and heading to dinner, you coming?"  
  
"Yeah, sure."  
  
Neither of them were able to stomach being in the same dorm with the three blondes that were in their year, so after much investigation, in their first year, about one week into the term they had discovered a hidden room, which contained two beds.  
  
To get to their room they simply taped the third brick up, on the right, in the corner kitty corner to the door in any room.  
  
They had also blackmailed their dorm-mates into keeping their secret. In return for not telling about them not staying in their dormitory at night, they had promised not to reveal to anybody that the "Blonde Bimbos" took boys up to their room for snogging sessions.  
  
They set their stuff on their respective desks, organized everything the way they liked it, and headed down to dinner.  
  
At Dinner:  
  
They sat down in their usual seats, and dug in.  
  
"Foxy, there's another prefects meeting tonight, and I heard rumors that there's going to be a Halloween Masquerade. Can you confirm?"  
  
"Huh? Yeah, sure, whatever."  
  
"Lillian Hannah Evans, are you listening to me?"  
  
"Um-hmm."  
  
"No you're not. Let's see, the Blonde Bimbos have mastered how to turn a turtle into a teapot."  
  
"Whatever you say, Wings."  
  
"You have purple hair and a giant boil on your nose."  
  
"Of course, Wings, of course."  
  
"I'm dating Sirius Black."  
  
"The devil you are!" Said Lily suddenly at attention.  
  
"Actually I'm not I'm just trying to get your attention."  
  
"Oh, okay, so what was it you were saying?"  
  
"I wanted you to confirm that we were going to have a Halloween Masquerade, since you have a Prefects meeting tonight, I wanted to know if you could find out for me since the rumors are already flying."  
  
"Oh, sure. I'll ask Sally," said Lily, naming that year's Head Girl. 


	3. Meeting in the Kitchen

At the Prefects meeting:  
  
"Ok everybody," said Sally Anderson, "today we're going to plan the details of the Halloween Masquerade, on October 30th. We need to have someone in charge of decorations, someone for food, and people to arrange music."  
  
"Sal," said Howard Bones, the Head Boy, "how 'bout we just do it by house? Ravenclaw is in charge of decorations, Gryffindor does arranges the food with the house elves, and Hufflepuff, you guys are doing the music. And Slytherin, you guys are helping Ravenclaw with the decorations. Does that work for everyone?" at their nods he said, "Good, good, now that we have that settled, Evans, Potter I am ashamed of you. Fighting in the corridors, and right outside the Charms classroom. If you are going to fight, at least have the decency to do in where you won't get caught." He laughed, "Oh, and the next time you get an urge to throw curses at each other, kindly resist. Three of the first years have already been hit with your off-aim spells."  
  
After that the meeting turned to discussions of certain mundane matters, they discussed several of the cases involving unusual punishments.  
  
"Wings," said Lily when she got back to their room, "We're having the masquerade on October 30th, we have to go to Hogsmeade to get robes, and masks and such."  
  
"Wonderful, I know what I'm going as, an owl."  
  
"How original," said Lily, as she grinned at her best friend, "I'm going to be all mysterious and go as a vixen."  
  
"Oh, my, god," said Teri imitating the Blondes, "you are so like going to be like not known. You have like the best like idea. No one is like going to know that it's like you."  
  
Teri and Lily laughed. "Hey Wings, I'm hungry, I didn't eat much at dinner. I'm heading down to the kitchens, wanna come?"  
  
"Sure, but I forgot the invisibility charm, so your going to have to remind me."  
  
"Invisiblo."  
  
"Got it."  
  
They headed down to the kitchens. On the way there they heard a voice that sounded oddly familiar.  
  
"Prongs, get off my foot!"  
  
"Sorry Padfoot, do your poor delicate paws hurt?"  
  
"Yes, now let's get moving before we get caught."  
  
"Er, guys, I have a feeling that we're being followed."  
  
"Wormtail, there isn't anyone behind us."  
  
"But Moony, I heard someone snickering."  
  
At that Lily and Teri almost burst out laughing."  
  
"It's ok Wormtail, there's no one there."  
  
Even if Teri and Lily hadn't identified the voices, they would have been able to figure out who was there just by the names being used.  
  
The Marauders entered the kitchen, and after they had been inside for about thirty seconds Lily and Teri followed.  
  
"Ms. Lily, Ms. Teri, it is good to see you again," squeaked one of the house elves.  
  
The girls were still under the invisibility charm, but for some reason invisibility charms didn't work on house elves.  
  
"Shhhh, we want to surprise the boys," Teri whispered. None of the other house elves had been paying much attention to the girls. The little house elf nodded with glee.  
  
The girls snuck up behind Sirius and Remus and blew on their ears, it was one of the tricks that they had learned about the two. If you blew in their ears they went nuts.  
  
"Ahhhhhhh," screamed Sirius and Remus in unison.  
  
"I told you there was someone following us," said Peter in a sulky tone.  
  
The girls went silently around the table, and tickled the back of Peter's and James' necks.  
  
"Jeezuz!" cried Peter.  
  
The girls were suddenly laughing their heads off, "We got you!"  
  
Lily took the invisibility charm off the two of them, and they all sat down to a midnight snack.  
  
All through the meal Lily and James pointedly ignored each other, and made conversation with the others. Lily talking to Remus, Teri and Sirius flirted like mad, and James and Peter discussed the latest piece of information that Peter had collected about Malfoy, and how to use it.  
  
"You know James, you could just blackmail Malfoy with that tidbit. And tell him you know what he sleeps in. I've been milking him with that one for almost a year now," said Lily.  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"Oh simple, you can do anything with an invisibility charm, and quiet footsteps."  
  
"Actually, I followed one of the Slytherin first years into their common room and went a snooping."  
  
"It's amazing what you can find in the trunks of those people on a Hogsmeade weekend."  
  
"I'm pooped," said Peter, "I think we should head back."  
  
"Right," replied Remus, "let's go guys."  
  
With that Teri and Lily put the invisibility charm back on and walked with the Marauders back to the Gryffindor common room. The Marauders gave the Fat Lady the password, and they trooped inside. Lily and Teri said good night and headed up to the dorm to get back into their room.  
  
"See James, Lily isn't so bad," said Remus, "you should get to know her a little better."  
  
"As if she would let me," said James, "That girl has got more tricks up her sleeve than I do, and if I even make eye contact with her she get angry."  
  
"No she doesn't," replied Sirius, "she only gets mad because right before you look at her you play a prank on her."  
  
"I do not," said James, "man, I never noticed, but Peter is the loudest sleeper I've ever known."  
  
"Silencio."  
  
"Time for bed," said Remus, "night guys." 


	4. Halloween Masquerade

A/N: please no flames about the two hour leap, I couldn't think of anything so I just kind of skipped the part where they talked about whatever they talked about.  
  
Halloween Masquerade  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, as you undoubtedly already know, we are going to have a Halloween Masquerade. Masks are required, and if you don't find anything at Hogsmeade there is a costume room near the Astronomy Tower. I'm sure you will be able to find something suitable in there," after his announcement Dumbledore sat down smiling at the cheering, which could be heard all the way down at Hagrid's hut.  
  
A/N: Ok, I don't have anymore ideas for September, so I'm going to skip right to October.  
  
Hogsmeade, two weeks before the Halloween Masquerade:  
  
Lily and Teri were at Gladrags, they were talking in hushed tones near the back of the store. "Hey, Foxy, I've never really seen myself in my animangus form, what color am I?" asked Teri looking at a rack of likely prospects.  
  
"You're white, completely white. Hey, Wings, what do I look like after I transform?"  
  
"Hmm, you're all red, except for obviously your eyes, which are emerald green, your nose, which like any normal fox is black, and the end of your tail, it's white," Teri paused to look at a ivory colored gown. "Oh, Foxy, you know what would be cute? It would be absolutely adorable if you had a tail to go with your costume. You could cut a hole in the back of your gown and transform, but only your tail. Or you could just have a fake one, but I like my idea better, it would make you look so much cuter."  
  
"Sure, I like that, it would be fun too. Having control of it like that, it would be so funny if someone thought that it was fake and I proved them wrong. And you should get an owl mask, since you can't transform since then you wouldn't have arms."  
  
Lily and Teri tried on dresses for an hour before they found the ones they were looking for. Lily and Teri bought the dresses, and went to look for make-up.  
  
(A/N: Don't get me wrong, Lily and Teri aren't girly-girls, but they like to look nice when the occasion calls for it.)  
  
After looking for nearly half and hour, and their faces were caked, they removed it all, bought what they needed and went down to the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer.  
  
The day of the Masquerade:  
  
Classes had been let out two hours early due to pleading by Sally, she claimed that it took at least that long to get into the shower, because of the excitement in the dorms.  
  
Lily and Teri had a private bathroom, so they didn't have to worry. "Foxy, help me zip up, I can't reach."  
  
"There, better Wings?"  
  
"Much, thanks a bunch."  
  
Lily was in the bathroom in front of the mirror applying her make-up, "A touch of green eye shadow, a hint of blush, lipstick, lip gloss, and finally the curling of the hair," she thought to herself. "Perfect. Now, all I have to do is transform my tail." With a look of determination, she managed to transform only her tail.  
  
"Lils, ready to go?"  
  
"Yeah, ok so where are we going to go the dorm, or the common room?"  
  
"The common room, I have no desire to get caught up with the Blondes."  
  
"Ok," Lily tapped the brick they had marked for the common room, whispered the password, and walked through the door that had appeared.  
  
"Quick, Wings we don't want anyone to see us."  
  
Together they headed down to the Entrance Hall, and hid in one of the rooms nearby, they wanted to make an entrance, so they had brought their wands so that they wouldn't have to open the doors by hand, and so that they could charm the doorway to emit golden sparks upon their entrance.  
  
"Is everybody there?"  
  
"They should be, the Masquerade started an hour ago, we're barely able to say fashionably late," replied Teri.  
  
"Ready?"  
  
"Here we go."  
  
Teri set the charm, and the doors opened to reveal the two of them, some of the guys there were able to guess correctly who they were, since it was known to some that they had turned down all of their suitors.  
  
"Now that we are all here, let the Halloween Masquerade begin."  
  
The music started and people flooded the dance floor.  
  
It was a fast song, and since they were hungry Lily and Teri headed over to the cold buffet.  
  
"Don't drink the punch," said a voice from behind them.  
  
"Sirius what did you do to it?" said Teri not looking at the person behind her.  
  
"Nothing, I'm innocent I swear."  
  
"Right and I'm supposed to believe you," said Teri, turning around she said, "Sirius are you supposed to be a dog in that costume?"  
  
"Only if you want me to be."  
  
"The two of you need to get a room," said Lily.  
  
"I think so," said Sirius looking rather bemused.  
  
"Are you mental or is it just a cover for some kind of secret genius?"  
  
"I'm not too clear on that myself."  
  
Teri and Sirius continued their discussion while Lily hoped that Sirius wasn't playing her like he had with all those other girls.  
  
James was dressed as a stag. He was wearing silver robes, and had transfigured some of his hair into weightless silver antlers.  
  
James wasn't having very much fun, he had seen Sirius talking to Teri over by the punch bowl, and since many of the girls had dyed their hair different colors he doubted that he would be able to pick out any one person. He hadn't seen Teri come in but he had heard that someone had made quite an entrance an hour into the dance after everyone had eaten. He had missed it because he had been busy spiking the punch and laying out trick foods at the buffet, and since his back had been turned to the doors he had missed the entire scene.  
  
He had heard that a girl in a white dress and a girl in a red dress were the one causing all the commotion, but of course those vague descriptions described at least half the girls in the hall.  
  
"Hello precious," he said to a nearby girl. She was wearing a golden red dress, her hair was curled, and from where he was standing she had on green eye shadow, and red gold lipstick. She was very pretty and he was much impressed. "May I have this dance?"  
  
It was a slow dance, and Lily decided that this stag whoever he was wasn't too bad. She didn't want anyone to recognize her voice, so she curtsied and took his hand as he led her onto the dance floor.  
  
They made a striking couple, she was gold, and he was silver, they seemed like the perfect pair, excepting of course the obvious height difference.  
  
It was rather humorous, he was a foot taller than she was, but he looked taller because of his antlers.  
  
No one said anything, and no one suspected that the striking couple was the school's infamous enemies. They were considered even worse than the Marauders and Snape. They only pulled pranks on Snape, when it came to James and Lily, well, let's just say that, there were often some rather strange affects.  
  
Lily and James continued to dance, twirling around the dance floor, blissfully unaware of the stares that they were getting.  
  
When the song ended James pulled Lily outside onto a balcony, "Tell me who you are."  
  
"But you're not supposed to find out until midnight."  
  
Lily curled her tail around his arm to keep him from pulling off her mask.  
  
Looking at her tail he smiled and said, "My own little vixen, that's what I'll call you until you reveal your face."  
  
"And I will call you stag, since that's what you seem to be dressed as. My own stag, I like it."  
  
Two hours later:  
  
It was nearing midnight, "I have to go," said Lily.  
  
"Only if you tell me who you are."  
  
"Maybe next year."  
  
"I don't want to wait that long."  
  
"Maybe I'll reveal myself at Christmas, I'll talk to one of the prefects about doing a masquerade for Christmas." With that Lily slipped away, leaving a forlorn looking James standing on the balcony staring at the throng that she had disappeared into.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's midnight, and it is now time for you to remove your masks," announced Dumbledore.  
  
James pulled off his mask, still staring dazedly at the crowd of people.  
  
At the same time near the doors of the Great Hall, Lily was removing her mask, and as soon as she had done so she pushed open the door and headed to one of the nearby rooms to get back into her room.  
  
Lily got back to the room and changed into her sports bra and shorts, the ones that she wore to bed.  
  
"Foxy I just had the most amazing night, I danced the entire time with Sirius, and I think we're going out."  
  
"You think? Are you sure that dating him is the best idea, I mean I know what he's great looking and all, I just don't want you to get hurt, just look at all the girls that we've seen crying in the dorms because of him."  
  
"Oh, I don't know, it just seemed right at the time."  
  
"If you say so, but don't blame me for saying I told you so."  
  
"Ok, I won't, but enough about me, tell me about your night. I noticed you dancing with the guy in the silver with the antlers. Sirius knew who he was, but he wouldn't tell me. So, spill who is he?"  
  
"I don't know, after we danced we went out onto the balcony, and I left a little before Dumbledore announced midnight, so I never saw his face." Lily went on to describe her night and when she was done Teri said,  
  
"Oh, that's so romantic. You should write him a letter and sign it Vixen. It would be so cute, and it would be like a forbidden romance or something, only not forbidden."  
  
"Teri, your imagination is getting the better of you again, but I think that writing him a letter would be a good idea. I'll need to borrow your owl though." 


	5. Post Masquerade Marauder Meeting

"I have a new girlfriend," said Sirius when the Marauders had gotten back to their dorm.  
  
"Really, Padfoot, whose the lucky lady this week?" asked Peter.  
  
"Teri Smythe."  
  
"Be careful with this one Padfoot, you've seen what Lily can do, and if you hurt her best friend she'll probably hex you with spells that are irreversible," cautioned Remus.  
  
"Don't worry about it Moony, I have a feeling that she's the one."  
  
"Padfoot, you said that about the last three," said Remus.  
  
Sirius 'hmphed' and turned to James, "Jamie-poo you've been awfully quiet. Is something wrong, did you have an encounter with the Madame Hex again?"  
  
"Who?" asked James, not really paying attention.  
  
"Lily did you have another encounter with Lily at the Masquerade?"  
  
"Oh, no, but I met the most beautiful girl. She wouldn't tell me her name though, and she left before midnight so I didn't see her face."  
  
"Oh poor Jamsie, he's fallen in love with a nameless stranger."  
  
James had since gone into a dazed state and wasn't listening to Sirius' taunts.  
  
"Er, James, you alive in there?" asked Remus waving his hand in front of James' face.  
  
"James! You have detention again," said Sirius trying to get James' attention.  
  
"You're sitting in a bowl of ice cream," tried Peter.  
  
"Lily's dancing naked in the common room," this came from Remus and worked.  
  
"What?!" James was suddenly at attention.  
  
"Ha! I knew it, James likes Lily!" Remus was all smiles now.  
  
"I do not," said James, trying to hide his blush.  
  
"Then why do you two always fight in the corridors when ever you meet?" asked Sirius.  
  
"Because she hates my guts, and I return the favor."  
  
"Really," said Sirius in a disbelieving tone.  
  
Just then there was a tap on the window.  
  
"I wonder what that could be," said Peter going over to the window so that whatever it was could get inside.  
  
The tawny brown owl swooped inside and dropped a letter in James' lap.  
  
The owl landed on one of the bed posts, apparently waiting for a reply.  
  
The letter was written on a plain piece of parchment, and was sealed with a blank wax seal.  
  
"Oo, oo, open it. It could be from lover girl."  
  
"Shut up Padfoot," said James as he cracked the seal and read the letter.  
  
Dear Stag, I had a wonderful night, I hope yours was a great as mine. As you read this letter I will be thinking about you and hoping that you'll write back. The owl should be with you now awaiting your reply.  
  
I can't stop thinking about you,  
  
All my love,  
  
Vixen  
  
That was all that was written, and after he was done, James' eyes slid out of focus once more, enabling Remus to take the letter and read it.  
  
"Jamsie-boy, you should write back before the owl decides to leave," said Remus when he was done reading the letter.  
  
"Right, right, hand me some parchment and a quill. What should I say?"  
  
"How should I know?" asked Remus, "I've never gotten a mysterious love letter before."  
  
"Oo, oo, I have," cried Sirius, "To start you should write Dear Vixen, and from there go one to describe your feelings, and a bunch of junk about how much you enjoyed her company and things like that."  
  
James walked over to the desk in the room, and began his letter.  
  
Dear Vixen, I can't stop thinking about you either, not that my friends would let me after I got your letter. I hope you are well. For some reason I'm unable to get your beautiful green eyes out of my mind. I think you're beautiful, will you please tell me who you are?  
  
Forever Yours-  
  
Stag  
  
He tied the note to the owl's leg and it took off through the open window.  
  
"So, Wings, what does it say?" asked Lily anxious to read the note that Teri's owl had brought back.  
  
"Calm down Foxy, here," said Teri handing Lily the note.  
  
Dear Vixen.  
  
"Oh, it's so sweet. I want to see who he is."  
  
"Tell him to meet you outside or something, and go in your animangus form, that way he won't know it's you and you'll be able to see who it is."  
  
"Sounds like a plan. I'll owl him tomorrow."  
  
With that lily lay down and fell asleep with a smile on her face. 


	6. Lovers Meeting? I think not

Something was bouncing on the bed, when Lily opened her eyes she saw Teri bouncing up and down, hair flying, and all smiles.  
  
"Teri, what are you doing?" said Lily in an annoyed tone.  
  
"Oh, nothing, but you have a letter to write."  
  
"Right, it's Saturday Wings, I want to get as much sleep as I can, I'll do it later."  
  
"Now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now," said Teri, still bouncing.  
  
"Wow Ter, you're almost as bad as your boyfriend when he's in a hyper mood, I'm glad you found each other."  
  
"C'mon Foxy, you will write the letter now or I will do it for you."  
  
"Fine, be a bum in a hole."  
  
Lily got up and grabbed a piece of parchment.  
  
Dear Stag, I want to meet you. Meet me outside at ten am today, at the weeping willow in front of the lake.  
  
All my love,  
  
Vixen  
  
Lily sealed the letter with a blank seal and sent it off with Teri's owl.  
  
"Sirius, get off my bed, and what do you want?" said James, it was only eight o'clock in the morning, and it was Saturday.  
  
"You have another letter from lover girl."  
  
James was suddenly awake, "Give it here."  
  
"Alright sleepy head, I have a date, have fun and tell me all about it," Sirius handed him the letter and left.  
  
"Sirius why are you opening my mail?!" hollered James.  
  
He looked at the letter, and when he was done reading it he leaped over to Remus' bed.  
  
"Remus! WAKE UP! I need your help."  
  
"Waddayawant?" mumbled Remus, still half asleep.  
  
"I need your help, she wants to meet me, and I don't know what to wear, how to get my hair not to stick up all over, or how act. You gotta help me out."  
  
"I don't know, find out who she is first. Just go in your stag form, you'll be able to see who it is and not have to worry about anything, if she's truly hideous you don't have to date her, and if she's gorgeous, well, send her an owl and tell her that one of your friends got hurt and that you had to help him to the Hospital Wing. Now let me sleep."  
  
"Thanks Moony ol' pal, you always come through."  
  
Lily walked down one of the hidden stair cases, when she got outside she transformed, and jogged to the weeping willow. She quickly climbed the tree and lay down on one of the lower branches.  
  
James slipped outside under his invisibility cloak and went over to the edge of the forest. He transformed and trotted over to the oak tree where he hid, close enough to see the willow, but far enough not to be seen.  
  
He waited for forty five minutes, but didn't see anyone but a fox go near the tree.  
  
Oh well, he thought, she must have chickened out. I hope she'll keep writing.  
  
He went back to the forest, de-transformed and went back inside with his invisibility cloak.  
  
I wonder if he's going to show, I guess not, I'll write him another letter asking him why.  
A/N: I know it's short, but the next one will be longer, I promise.  
  
Ta Ta  
  
Blackberry Blitz 


	7. Uncommon Common Room Curses

Uncommon Common Room Curses.  
  
Dearest Stag, Why didn't you show up at the willow? I hope you're alright.  
  
Lover Forever-  
  
Vixen  
  
The owl flew through the window and dropped the letter on James' bed.  
  
James and Lily were in the common room having another fight, everyone else was safely behind a piece of furniture, in the stairwells, or hidden in some other nook or cranny that would keep them safe until the 'storm' had passed.  
  
Lily: Horicortis  
  
James: Jergintery  
  
Lily: Keplinotis  
  
James: Indencerio  
  
Lily: Monigranitolli  
  
James: Wandilaris  
  
Lily: Panitanarey  
  
James: Veranittont  
  
Lily: Ambendio  
  
James: Sandishoney  
  
Lily: Quentisolim  
  
James: Rantisonist  
  
Lily: Cantironalsen  
  
James: Zanister  
  
Lily: Perinital  
  
James: Trisectanolly  
  
This went on for about an hour, until both of them were unconscious due to the severe affects of the hexes that had been placed upon them mixed together.  
  
"I guess we should take them to the Hospital Wing," said Remus as he conjured up two stretchers.  
  
"I guess, but why can't we just leave them, it would be fun to see how they would sort out this mess by themselves," replied Sirius, he was having a lot of fun thinking up ways to tease James about his current state, being covered in different and unidentifiable object, and growing a magenta beard.  
  
"Sirius, you know we can't do that, three reasons, first, Lily and James would gang up on us and hex us into oblivion, second, they would probably hit half of the school running after us, and third, well, Madame Pomfrey would kill us herself for letting students stay in anything but perfect health," said Teri, looking like she would rather not think about what would happen.  
  
"Fine, I just hope that Madame Pomfrey will be able to sort them out. I've memorized most of the spells that they've used in their other fights, and I haven't heard of most of the ones they used today," said Sirius reluctantly.  
  
"Don't worry dears; I'll have them sorted out soon enough. I have a list of the curses that they've used previously, and some of these I'll be able to look up the counter curses to. Not to worry, I'll have them back to normal in a few days at most. It only gets tricky when they start making up their own curses, hexes, charms, transfigurations, and spells," said Madame Pomfrey.  
  
"You mean they actually make up their own? I just thought that the stuff they used on each other were really old ancient spells that they looked up in the library," said Teri, a bit amazed at what her friend had been doing in her spare time.  
  
"Oh, some of them are, but these two make up ones based on ancient texts, and some they make up using Latin and Greek. I do believe that both of them are fluent in both languages by now, even Spanish, French, and most likely German. I believe that part of their punishment for fighting so much is that they're each writing books on all the spells that they've made up, and their counters as well."  
  
"Is that why they never have detention with us?" asked Sirius.  
  
"Of course, that is what they do in detention all the time, they don't actually clean anything, whenever the two of them get detention they go to Professor McGonagall, and she supervises them as they write their books. It was all Dumbledore's idea, and it seems like it was a good one. In a few weeks if they keep up this fighting, we'll have a new Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts, Advanced Transfiguration, and Advanced Charms text book."  
  
"So that's what they do as punishment every time they get in a fight," said Remus, he thought that it was rather amusing that James and Lily were actually doing something useful whenever they got into a fight.  
  
Lily and James walked back to the common room separately after they had been released from the Hospital Wing.  
  
"Jamsie-poo you have another letter from lover girl," said Sirius when James got back.  
  
"Don't call me that Sirius," said James as he tried to get Sirius to give him the letter, "Sirius may I have my letter please."  
  
Sirius handed him the opened letter.  
  
As he read the thought, She must have been hiding waiting to make sure that I wasn't Snape or something, he chuckled at the thought.  
  
Dear Vixen,  
  
I'm sorry I didn't show, I was helping one of my friends to the Hospital Wing, he's rather accident prone, and well, he fell down a flight of stairs. He's alright though.  
  
Forever Yours-  
  
Stag  
  
He rolled up the letter and headed to the owlrey. 


	8. Finding Out Who's Who

James took a short cut and was in the owlrey in five minutes flat. He tied the message to a snowy white owl's leg, and said, "Could you please take this to someone named Vixen?" at the owl's nod he said, "Thank you," and left.  
  
Teri was in the owlrey talking to some of her owl friends when James came in.  
  
Uh-oh, he's coming my way. When he gave her his request, and the letter she was taken quite by surprise. Holy sh*t, Lily is going to freak when she finds out who her mystery boyfriend is.  
  
Teri flew to the room, dropped the letter and flew to the boys dorms.  
  
There she quickly transformed and screamed at the top of her lungs, "SIRIUS BLACK, GET YOU'RE A** UP HERE THIS INSTANT." And Sirius being the attentive boyfriend that he was came up five minutes later.  
  
"What's wrong?" asked Sirius in a semi-worried voice.  
  
"We have a major problem. Lily and James are in love with each other, I think, and they don't know it. Not only that, when they find out who is who they're going to freak," said Teri.  
  
"Ter, what are you talking about, the only one who James is in love with is some mystery girl he met at the Masquer." he trailed off, suddenly realizing what he was saying, "You mean that was Lily, bloody hell."  
  
"Like I said we have a problem."  
  
"So, what are we going to do about it?"  
  
"How should I know, why else do you think I came over here?"  
  
"I don't know what to do," after a pause Sirius said, "let's go ask Moony, he always knows how to fix these things.  
  
"Moony ol' pal, we have a to-be-crisis on our hands," said Sirius.  
  
"Yeah, you'll have to come with us," with that Sirius and Teri dragged Remus out the portrait hole, and into an empty classroom.  
  
"What's wrong? I was reading," said Remus, not liking to be disturbed when he was in the middle of a book.  
  
"Pashaw, you're always reading. We have a to-be-crisis on our hands. You know that girl that James has been writing to? It's Lily, if they find out, they're going to freak. This is bad Moony, very bad," said Sirius.  
  
"That's not good," said Remus.  
  
"Is that all you can say?! My best friend is going to be crushed when she finds out that her worst enemy is the guy she's in love with," said Teri.  
  
"It's okay Teri, nothing is going to happen, all we need to do is get them to fall for each other before they find out who they've been writing to" said Remus.  
  
"And how do you propose we do that? The only time they can be in a room together is when they're in a class and even then, half the time they get kicked out," said Teri.  
  
"Well, from what we have observed," began Sirius in a know-it-all tone, "Mister Potter is somewhat infatuated with Miss Evans. If we could manage to cultivate this into something more than an infatuation, and keep Miss Evans from hexing the dear boy into next week, I dare say that we stand a chance at getting them together, and avoiding potential disaster. Of course, if we fail, or get caught, I do believe that we will find ourselves in the middle of the Sahara Desert, and most likely with more appendages than we have now. And knowing James the way I do, we'll probably be missing one or tow of our vital organs."  
  
"Okay," said Remus slowly, "is there anyway to make this fool proof? I don't fancy being castrated. I still have a long life to live."  
  
"To true, it wouldn't be any fun to date Sirius if he was missing anything," joked Teri.  
  
"You wound me my dear, you wound me," replied Sirius.  
  
"If neither of you have any ideas, I think we'll just have to muddle along and pray to God that we don't get caught," said Remus.  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me," said Sirius.  
  
"I hope this works, for your sakes and the sakes of your could-be children," said Teri. 


	9. Truce? In Some Places

Truce? In Some Places  
  
Lily was seething in anger when Teri got back, "I hate that boy's guts!" she exclaimed as soon as Teri got back.  
  
"Er, Foxy, you have another letter from your mystery man," saying the only thing that could have possibly calmed Lily down.  
  
"I do? Where?"  
  
"It's on your bed."  
  
"Thanks Wings."  
  
"So," Teri demanded, "does it say why he didn't show up?"  
  
"He says that one of his friends got hurt and he had to take them to the Hospital Wing."  
  
"In that case, set up another date."  
  
"Wings, I don't think that I should do that. You were there with me; no one else was in the Hospital Wing. I think that he might have been hiding in the bushes somewhere trying to make sure that I wasn't hideous or a complete airhead."  
  
"Your probably right Foxy," Teri sighed, this was going to be harder than she thought.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"James are you oh-key-doke?" asked Sirius, James' behavior was beginning to worry him.  
  
"I'm fine," said James.  
  
"Right and I'm a dancing penguin," Sirius retorted.  
  
"That can be arranged you know."  
  
"Sorry, I forgot that you still have your wand."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Foxy, you should write mystery man another letter. And if meeting him won't work, then, just tell him that you'll see him at the Christmas Masquerade."  
  
"Sounds like a plan, but first I have to make sure that Sally and Howard are okay with having a masquerade."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
At the prefect meeting:  
  
"Okay guys, it's the middle of November and this time I want to make sure that everything is perfect for Christmas since we have to decorate the entire castle," said Sally.  
  
"The prefects will be in charge of decorating their own common rooms and the floor that they're on. Er, Gryffindor will also be responsible for decorating the towers, Ravenclaw, you will be responsible for the third floor, Slytherin you have the dungeons, and the floor right above them, Hufflepuff, you are doing the fourth floor; and we'll all pitch in to do the fifth, sixth, and the ground floor. Another thing I don't want any of you to be putting up your colors, you will only be allowed to decorate with Christmas, Hanukkah, and other holiday colors," said Howard.  
  
"We also need to decide on something for the Christmas parties. We could have a concert, a talent show, a ball, or anything else, so long as the majority agrees," said Sally.  
  
"How about we have another masquerade, but this time only fifth years and up. The younger kids can have their own party somewhere," suggested Lily, "one of the students came up to me and asked if I could suggest it and I thought that it would be a good idea."  
  
"We could also make it part concert, we could have people try out and we would decide if they get to perform at the ball. It would be great, it's a ball with a bit of a twist," said Rachel, one of the Ravenclaw prefects.  
  
"Does anyone object to this idea?" asked Sally.  
  
No objections came forth.  
  
"I guess that's what we will be doing. Now I have gotten the teachers to give us a no homework week so that we will be able to work on the decorations. Rope whomever you need into helping, as long as they are from your own house," said Howard.  
  
"Meeting dismissed."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily walked to the library to research some new spells she was working on, when she got there she asked the librarian for the key to the restricted section.  
  
"Here you go dear, and be careful, we got some new books, and well let's just say that these ones are a vicious bunch," said Madame Libran. (A/N: original, isn't it?)  
  
"Thank you."  
  
She opened the iron bar door, and went up and down the isles looking for one of the new books. She was very familiar with this section of the library, in fact she was familiar with *every* section of the library. She had almost memorized the entire thing, and was looking for the new books.  
  
"Ha, here you are you little bugger. I've got you now," she said to the book that she had pulled off the shelf, it was one of the new ones, but unlike the other ones this one tried to run away from you.  
  
Lily took the book over to one of the tables, and started to read. It took her a little longer than she had anticipated, simply because this book was written in German, and it wasn't her strongest language.  
  
"What are you doing in the Library?" asked a voice from behind her.  
  
"I'm taking notes; Potter, what do you want? I don't have to be looking at you to send you into next week, so I don't suggest you try anything."  
  
"Very well, I was actually doing the same thing you were, but I need the key to the Restricted Section, and you have the only key."  
  
"Here," she said not bothering to turn around.  
  
"Thank you ever so," he said with false sweetness.  
  
Lily was done with the book a few hours later, and with her copious notes in hand she went to put the book back, only to find that the door was locked, *Damn,* she thought, *now I'll have to find Potter, and ask him for the key. Let's hope that I can do this without choking.*  
  
"Excuse me Mr. Potter, may I have the key? I need to return this book to the shelf that I got it from."  
  
"But of course Ms. Evans, I would only be too happy to give you the key."  
  
"Thank you very much Mr. Potter."  
  
*It seems like we have declared an unofficial truce in the Library,* she thought bemusedly as she walked back across the Library.  
  
James just sat there, *Wow, she's got a great body. . . AH! Where did that come from?! Okay Potter, back to work, you want this book done by Christmas, right?* He turned back to work; luckily no one noticed the blush that had spread across his face. 


	10. Decorating

Decoration  
  
'Dear Stag,  
  
I can't stop thinking about you. I can't forget the way you looked into my eyes and into my soul. I know it sounds cliché, but it's the truth.  
  
I heard that we're having a Christmas Masquerade; I can't wait to see you again. You'll know it is me by one golden rose, and my costume, it will be the same one I wore to the Halloween Masquerade. I'll wear it in my hair; you'll be in my heart forever.  
  
My Love to You Forever-  
  
Vixen'  
  
Lily tied the message to the owl's leg and sighed. *I can't wait to see him again. I just know that this time it's going to be more magical than the last. Well, I better get going, don't want to keep James, and whoever else he got roped into this, waiting.*  
  
Lily tapped the brick that would lead to the room nearest the portrait of the Fat Lady and walked through the opening. She went up to the Fat Lady, gave the password, and entered the common room.  
  
James wasn't there, and since Lily was not in a polite mood she yelled at the top of her lungs, "JAMES HAROLD POTTER GET YOUR A** DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"  
  
"Coming Lily dearest," came the reply, all sugary.  
  
When James came down Lily said, "Okay Potter, let's grab some people and get this over with."  
  
"Whatever you say, you're in charge."  
  
*There's something wrong with this picture,* thought Lily, *he shouldn't be acting so nice. But since he is, I'm going to take advantage of it.*  
  
"SIRIUS, REMUS, PETER, GET YOUR FAT BUTTS DOWN HERE. WE'RE DECORATING THE COMMON ROOM AND YOU'RE GOING TO HELP," hollered James.  
  
Suddenly there was a tumbling sound, several yelps, and four rather ruffled looking figures came out of the stair well leading to the boys' dorms.  
  
"Good, Wings, you can help too," said Lily when she spotted Teri trying to sneak away.  
  
Groans could be heard from all four of the volunteered subjects, but no one uttered a word for fear of getting hexed. Everyone could tell that Lily and James' stress levels were nearing their peak, and no one wanted to be the ones to make them go over the edge. The other prefects were out in the corridors on the second floor, or in the towers making sure that everything was running smoothly and the people they had kidnapped and put to work were behaving themselves.  
  
Lily and Teri were working on one wall, Sirius and Remus were working one another, and James and Peter were working on another one. The last wall was already decorated and was a template for what was supposed to be festive decoration. When the common room was finished the team headed out to corridors to see if anyone else needed help. They worked on one of corridors, and helped with the finishing touches to the Astronomy Tower, making the place a romantic haven for anyone willing to use it.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"It's amazing," said Peter, "Lily and James seem to be working together well."  
  
Sirius, Remus, and Teri all looked at him.  
  
"Well, at the very least, they aren't hexing each other are they? That has to be some kind of achievement."  
  
"You're right Wormtail," said Remus, "I think we should ditch them and go to the kitchens to celebrate."  
  
"Wonderful idea Moony," said Sirius, "I quite agree with your logic."  
  
Sirius grabbed Teri's arm and the four of them headed down to the kitchen to have some afternoon treats.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily wiped her brow, *Whew. I'm glad that the decorating is done.* "Hey James, since we're done, I'm going to hit the showers, see ya."  
  
"Bye," said James absently. James walked back to his dorm where he found another letter from the mystery girl.  
  
*I wonder what year she's in. I mean, she's a foot shorter than I am, and there's only one person in sixth year that is that short, and she hates my guts. So, it's probably some fourth or fifth year.* He sighed, *I can't wait to see her at the dance.*  
  
'Dear Vixen,  
  
I can't stop thinking about you either. I await the Christmas Masquerade with great anticipation, I too will wear the same costume. I will carry a red rose to your honor.  
  
Forever Yours-  
  
Stag' 


	11. Finally Finished with the Books

Final Finish to the Books  
  
Lily and James were sitting in at (separate) tables in the Library on Friday night. If anyone had passed by and looked at what they were doing, they would have seen them madly writing in a book. The books looked something like journals, nearly full journals.  
  
Finally, Lily stood up and stretched, "YES! I'm done!" she yelled, and the Madame Libran looked over at her and smiled.  
  
At the same time James stood, and gave a 'Whoop', "Finally, I'm finished!"  
  
Lily or James being loud at anything except another person was enough to get anyone's attention, but in the Library it was enough to get everyone's attention, and when Madame Libran just smiled, well, let's just say that in fifteen minutes everyone knew about it.  
  
Lily and James each placed some charms on their books to keep them from getting wet, torn etc. Then, they picked up their books and sprinted out of the Library, and straight for the Headmasters office.  
  
They reached it at the same time, said the password (Skittles) in unison, and ran up the spiral stairs together.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, I'm done!" they said at the same time.  
  
Dumbledore looked at their eager faces and smiled. "Excellent. Now all we have to do is fuse them, and we'll have our new text book for the Advanced Defense, Charms, and Transfiguration classes." At the look on their faces when he said 'fuse' he almost laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not putting one on top of the other, the new book will sort the spells and create three parts, each part will have all the chapters in an order that makes sense. You have no cause to worry that one of your books will be first. 'Few-si-um,'" said Dumbledore.  
  
The books became one glowing, new one, and when they stopped glowing the Headmaster made three copies, and handed Lily and James one copy each. "Now, I'll send this copy to the publisher and it'll be ready for students by the end of the week. Wonderful job by the way. Now both of you need to get some rest, by the looks of you, both of you have been staying up all night to finish your books and outdo each other."  
  
"Thank you Headmaster."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Both Lily and James slept for the entire Saturday.  
  
When Lily awoke she headed straight for her new book. She read it cover to cover three times before she was satisfied that she knew all of James' spells, their counters, and could hypothesize the affects of them when they were mixed together.  
  
James let the book lie in his trunk, knowing that it wouldn't be taken, and that it would still be there when he got back. Then, he went in search of his friends.  
  
He found them in the Great Hall eating breakfast with Teri.  
  
"Hey guys," he said as he sat down.  
  
"Hey Prongs," they had all suddenly stopped talking, "we weren't sure if you would ever wake up," said Peter.  
  
"I think that we have some serious pranking to do; I've been out of commission for quite a while, and I'm itching to get back at Snape and Malfoy."  
  
"What do you need to get them back?" asked Teri.  
  
"Oh, I don't know yet, but he's bound to do something soon, and why not get revenge before hand." Said James as he thought, *I wish Lily was here. WAIT A SEC! Where did that come from?! Oh, God, I think I'm going crazy, that girl hates my guts.*  
  
"I can't fault your logic, but I'm still a little unsure about what ever it is you're going to do."  
  
"Don't worry about it Wings," said Remus, "he's just using that as an excuse for him to do something that will get him in trouble."  
  
"He's probably itching to get a detention where he'll actually have to clean something; after all, he and Lily have been working on their books for the past two years," said Sirius.  
  
"Quite right, you guys know me too well," said James, "so, c'mon, we have some work to do."  
  
The five of them headed out of the Great Hall.  
  
Lily went into the Gryffindor common room, and sat down next to Teri.  
  
"Hey Foxy, we're going to prank Snape and Malfoy wanna come?" asked Remus.  
  
"Sure, not like I have anything else to do, and I need to get Snape for trying to make a move on me during Potions."  
  
"There ya go Teri," said James, "you have your reason to prank them."  
  
"Potter, I didn't know that you needed a reason to have a prank-fest with Snape as the target," said Lily with her eyebrow raised.  
  
"I don't, but it makes it seem justified, and it sometimes lessens the detention that I get if I get caught."  
  
"It's Sunday, and the Slytherins are mostly at Hogsmeade, Teri and I have a way to get into their common room without getting caught. And since it's only the first and second years that are still in their dorms we don't have to worry about them."  
  
"Okay guys, what's the plan?" asked Peter.  
  
Sirius piped up, "First we're going to go through their stuff, nick their underwear, and display it in the Great Hall at dinner."  
  
"Sirius that is one of the oldest pranks in the history of pranks, at least try and think of something original," said Lily.  
  
"Fine then, you plan the prank," said Sirius as he huffed, his pride was slightly wounded at being put down.  
  
"Okay, first we go into their common room. We charm it to be Gryffindor colors," Lily raised her hand for silence when Sirius opened his mouth. "Then, we're going to transfigure Snape and Malfoy's clothes into tube- tops, mini-skirts, and the like. Yes Sirius, I know that this is old, but that's not the beauty of it, we're going to charm them so that they won't realize what their wearing, and charm them to make them believe that they're girls."  
  
"It's brilliant," said Remus.  
  
"Wonderful," said Peter.  
  
"Let's get to work," said James. "Peter, you have your usual position, Sirius, you and I will do the transfiguration, and Remus, you help the girls with the charms."  
  
"We ready to go?" asked Teri.  
  
They all nodded and Teri said, "All of you have to swear that you will never reveal what we are about to show you to anyone."  
  
The boys all swore that whatever it was, was and always would be a secret; Teri nodded and tapped the brick that would lead them into Lily and Teri's room.  
  
"Wow!" said Sirius, "How long have you guys been living here?"  
  
"Since the second week of school in first year," answered Lily.  
  
"This is amazing," said Remus, "and you can get to anywhere from here?"  
  
"Yup," said Teri. "You just have to know the passwords."  
  
Lily walked over to the marked brick wall. She tapped the one of the bricks, muttered the password, and they all followed her into the Slytherin common room.  
  
"Wings," Lily whispered, "you take care of the common room, Moony and I will take the clothes."  
  
Lily had placed the invisibility charm on Peter and he stood guard in one of the corners of the common room.  
  
James, Sirius, and Remus followed Lily up the stair wells, and into the sixth year boys' dorms.  
  
She motioned to two trunks, and they busied themselves with picking the locks.  
  
"You'll have to be very quiet, the Slytherins are terribly paranoid and put listening spells everywhere," cautioned Lily, she and Remus got to work charming Snape's clothes while James and Sirius transformed Malfoy's clothes.  
  
When they were done they silently switched places, working on the half finished clothing.  
  
When everything was finished and looked the way it had when they had come in they left the room and went down to the common room to meet up with Teri and Peter.  
  
They motioned to Teri, and quietly called to Peter, then, they left.  
  
When they got back to Lily and Teri's room they all burst out laughing.  
  
"That has got to be the greatest prank I've ever pulled on those two," said Sirius.  
  
"Why thank you," said Lily smiling. 


	12. Post Prank Affects

Post Prank Affects  
  
At dinner the six of them sat down at the Gryffindor table, coincidentally Lily and James were sitting across from each other. Students and even some of the teachers started to look nervous.  
  
*He's so cute,* thought Lily, *AHH! I'm losing my mind! Potter hates my guts, and if I start acting like I don't, well, he'll probably think that I'm getting soft or something and tease me about it. Better just to forget this, I have Stag. I don't need anybody else.*  
  
"Truce Potter?" said Lily holding out her hand.  
  
*Truce?! I wonder what she's up to.*  
  
As if reading his mind, "I'm not up to anything Potter, but if you want I could be."  
  
"No, no, that's okay. After working with you, I think it would be for the best," he said grinning, "Truce."  
  
They didn't notice but everyone around them visibly relaxed.  
  
*Lily doesn't hate me any more!* James thought with glee, *Maybe I have a chance with her. 'James be reasonable.' Well, at least I have more of chance with her than I did before. I'm pretty close to even with the other guys. Of course, the other guys are no where, but we have a truce don't we? We could build a friendship with that.*  
  
Suddenly all attention turned to the doors. Snape and Malfoy walked in.  
  
Snape was wearing a lavender tube-top, light blue shorts, and light green sandals. If he had actually been a girl he might not have looked too bad, but his lack of chest mad him look like something out of a horror movie for teenage guys.  
  
Malfoy was wearing a yellow backless halter-top, an orange mini-skirt, and red sandals. He too might have looked decent if he had been a girl, but being a guy, and having certain attributes made the skirt look like, well, we're just not going to go into that.  
  
They walked right up to the Marauders and sat down in front of James and Remus.  
  
"Hello boys," Malfoy cooed, it sounded very odd in his low voice, but it was funny all the same.  
  
"I hope you're not dating anyone," said Snape as he curled his arm around James' head and stared at Sirius like there was no tomorrow.  
  
"This one is taken," said Teri leaning possessively against Sirius, "but the two you're sitting with are single."  
  
James and Remus glared at Teri, jumped up and ran like the hounds of hell were nipping at their heels, Snape and Malfoy ran after them, calling them and declaring their undying love.  
  
The Great Hall erupted with laughter.  
  
"Did you see the look on James' face?" asked Peter, laughing like a hyena.  
  
A/N: I know it's short, but 'Winter Break' is coming soon, more fun and laughter on the way. Never fear, the sappy romance will return. 


	13. Holiday Shopping in Hogsmeade

Holiday Shopping in Hogsmeade  
  
Dumbledore had the prefects post notices about the Christmas Masquerade in the common rooms, and most of the fifth years and above put their names down on the list stating that they were going to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas Holidays.  
  
"Foxy, what should I wear to the Masquerade?"  
  
"I dunno, you could just wear the same outfit that you wore last time."  
  
"But that's old now. Let's go down to Hogsmeade and find me a dress."  
  
"Alright Wings, but I'm warning you, at the first sign of snow we are going to head back."  
  
"Of course we are," agreed Teri.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
In Hogsmeade sat Gladrags:  
  
"What do you think of this one?"  
  
"Wings they all look great."  
  
"But Foxy," said Teri, "I want to look perfect, Sirius is my first boyfriend, I want to look special."  
  
"You look special in everything," said Lily absently just as an owl swooped down and dropped a letter in front of her.  
  
"Aren't owls supposed to drop letters off in your room, or wherever it is you sleep?"  
  
"I think so, but hey, the letter's here so why not read it?"  
  
"Good point Foxy. What does it say?"  
  
"It says:  
  
'Dear Vixen,  
  
I realized I don't know much about you, and that you don't know much about me, so I've decided to write a little about my self.  
  
To start I share a dorm with my best friends, they're all great guys, and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I live with my mom, dad, and my mom's cat when I'm not at Hogwarts.  
  
I have an owl who loves dog food, and a friend who is the same way about beef. (A/N: I've decided to make Peter a beef lover; sorry for all you vegetarian Peter fans.)  
  
Yours Forever-  
  
Stag'"  
  
Teri was giggling at Stag's description of his life and the friends that he had.  
  
"Say Foxy, where are you going to get a golden rose?" asked Teri.  
  
"Oh, they sell them just outside Honeydukes."  
  
"Well, I think I have my dress," said Teri from inside the dressing room.  
  
"Let me see," said Lily.  
  
"I think I want to surprise everybody," said Teri.  
  
"Alright, but if you look hideous don't blame it on me," said Lily in a joking tone.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Got it, the best one of the bunch," said Lily holding up a perfect golden rose bud, "it'll have time to bloom, and be perfect for the Masquerade."  
  
"Finally we have all our holiday shopping done," exclaimed Teri.  
  
Lily and Teri headed back to Hogwarts.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Sirius if you were getting something for someone, and you wanted it to match a red gold dress what would you get?" asked James while he and the rest of the Marauders were in the jewelry shop waiting for Sirius to pick something out for Teri.  
  
"Hmm," said Sirius thoughtfully, "get her a gold necklace with a fox pendant."  
  
"Perfect!"  
  
"Of course it is, it was my idea," said Sirius as he went back to looking at the jewelry cases. "By the by, what are you getting Lily? Whatever it is, please don't say a really pretty bookmark."  
  
"Er, I haven't gotten a present for Lily or Teri, what am I going to do, and I still need to get a present for my mom too!" said James panicking.  
  
Remus and Peter came up next to him when they saw his distress.  
  
"Get Teri candy, and the same for Lily," suggested Peter.  
  
"And you could get your mom an autographed copy of your book, and a 'really pretty bookmark'," said Remus.  
  
"Er, sounds good, thanks guys, I don't know what I would do without you," said James.  
  
"Of course you don't buddy," said Sirius as he swung his arm around James' shoulders and went on to describe all the perils of life with out him, Remus, and Peter at his side, while he and James paid for their things and went to finish the rest of their holiday shopping. 


	14. Christmas Masquerade Part One

Christmas Masquerade  
  
The Christmas Masquerade was set for December 23rd. The masquerade was set to go from six to midnight.  
  
Lily and Teri slipped into the girl's dorm, "Foxy, I cannot believe you are making me do this. There is no way I will be able to look *anyone* in the eye again."  
  
"Don't worry Ter, everything will be fine. We just need them to help us with my hair."  
  
"Then why do I need to come?" asked Teri.  
  
"Because I need you for moral support, and to keep the Blondes at bay, I don't want to end up looking like some kind of Frankenstein."  
  
"Fine, but you owe me big for this."  
  
"Thanks Wings," Lily turned to the three girls in the dorm, "Erm, hi girls, I need some help."  
  
All three heads turned towards her all showing looks of surprise.  
  
"What do you need help with?" asked the one sitting in front of the vanity doing her make up.  
  
"I, er, need help putting my hair up since I've never done it, Teri's never done it, and well, could you just help me please," said Lily.  
  
"Of course we will, won't we girls," said the one in front of the vanity.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Half an hour, and thirty seven 'ouch', 'oh, don't be a baby's later Lily's hair was up in a beautiful French twist held up by a single golden rose.  
  
"Thank you SO much," said Lily, "I don't know how I'll ever repay you."  
  
"Oh, don't worry about it," said Heather, she was the unspoken leader, "but, you could tell us who this is for."  
  
"Er, actually, I don't know who he is," said Lily, "Thank you, I'll let you get back to your preparations."  
  
"Bye, see you at the dance," the three blondes said as Lily and Teri left the room.  
  
Teri helped Lily do her make up, and after Lily was dressed she sent Lily to go wait for the dance to start.  
  
Lily was standing in a corridor near the Entrance Hall when she saw her Stag walk into the Great Hall, wearing a red rose like he promised, with three guys and a girl.  
  
*He's here,* she thought excitedly, *I hope likes the way I did my hair.*  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
*I wonder where she is,* thought James as he stood by the doors.  
  
Then, the doors burst open and in walked Lily, *Wow, everybody is staring at me. I hope I don't look hideous or anything.* All of a sudden a girl dressed in dark blue dashed up to her, "Lily, good you're here, the guy you're looking for is standing over there," the girl pointed to Stag.  
  
"Wings is that you?"  
  
"Of course it's me, who else could wear this shade of blue and come out looking like a goddess, not go and get your man."  
  
Lily walked up the James and said, "Hello, long time no see."  
  
"I've missed you," he responded, "I liked your hair better down," he said as he pulled the rose from her hair. "Let's go dance, and afterward I'm going to find out who you are."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Do you think James and Foxy are getting along well enough not to try and kill each other when we all de-mask?" asked Remus walking up to Sirius and Teri.  
  
"I'm not sure, but I get the feeling that they won't be finding out who is who tonight," said Teri.  
  
"How do you know that?" asked Sirius looking at her.  
  
"I'm not completely sure, but I can guess that Foxy's going to run before midnight. She's afraid of getting hurt. . ." Teri shut her mouth, instantly realizing that she had said too much.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Remus with a puzzled expression.  
  
"I can't tell you," said Teri, "I've already said too much, but I can tell you that when Foxy it ready she'll tell you."  
  
"It's alright darling," said Sirius, he was oddly silent, as if something else was on his mind; and indeed there was.  
  
*I wonder where Peter is. He never misses one of these things, he should be here, but I don't see him,* thought Sirius.  
  
"Siri, is something wrong?" asked Teri "What is is, you look scared."  
  
"Oh, nothing really, but I can't find Peter. He came with us, and now I can't find him. He should be here. I don't know why, but something is going to happen tonight. I can feel it."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It was nearing ten o'clock. Lily and James were once again out on the balcony over looking the area near the forest.  
  
"Stag?" asked Lily.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you see that shadow over in the forest?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Hmm, that's odd I could have sworn that there was something over there."  
  
"It was probably nothing, come back inside, I hear our dance playing," said James referring to their first dance.  
  
They walked inside blissfully unaware of the shadows that were moving towards the castle.  
  
A/N: Do you like?  
  
You could make me happy by going to the bottom of the screen and pushing the 'Go' button.  
  
I  
  
I  
  
I  
  
V 


	15. Christmas Masquerade Part Two

Christmas Masquerade Part 2  
  
Lily and James were in their own little worlds out on the dance floor. Each of them was thinking of each other and neither paying any attention to the people around them.  
  
"They look so perfect together," said Teri.  
  
"Yeah, they do," said Sirius, "it sucks that they can't get along with out their masks. It makes it seem like they're in love with the mask rather than the person whose really there."  
  
Remus was standing by the buffet table drinking some punch when suddenly he turned into a giant cockatoo and emitted a loud squawk.  
  
"SIRIUS," he yelled when he had turned back, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE PUNCH?!"  
  
"Nothing," said Sirius walking up, "I swear." He smiled, affectively canceling out his statement of innocence.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Will you tell me who you are?" asked James looking into Lily's eyes.  
  
"No, not yet," said Lily, "I will one day though."  
  
*She looks just like Lily.* thought James. *I wonder where Lily is.* he snapped back to the girl standing in front of him. *No, I have Vixen, I don't need anyone else. Besides, Lily and I barely have what could be called a friendship.*  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Master, you aren't going to hurt anybody are you? You promised, right?" said a voice from the shadows.  
  
"Of course not, I won't hurt anyone, I promised didn't I?" responded a cold voice.  
  
The first figure shivered.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The doors of the Great Hall burst open, and in the door way stood a tall man hidden in a black cloak, he was surrounded by, what seemed like hundreds of, followers, they too were hidden in their black cloaks.  
  
The leader pointed a long wand made of yew at one of the girls standing near the doorway, and said in a quiet voice, "Crucio," the girl went down, she was shivering, and shaking, her mouth open in a silent scream. The figure's voice was quiet, but everyone else was quieter. It was quiet enough that you could hear a pin drop on a pillow. "Give me the fox and you will all be spared."  
  
"YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. LEAVE AND NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR FOLLOWERS WILL BE HURT." Said Dumbledore in a loud voice, those who could see his expression could see why it was said that Dumbledore was the only one Voldemort was afraid of.  
  
The figure just laughed, "You think that you can banish me with idle threats? You pathetic fool. I am Lord Voldemort, and nothing you do can harm me. I repeat, give me the fox and I will leave."  
  
"Who is the fox?" asked one of his followers from the doorway.  
  
"She knows who she is, and if she is smart she will come to me," said Voldemort. He looked around the room smiling, "Come on out my little fox, you know who you are. I won't hurt you or any of your little friends."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
All of the teachers had moved to the front to shield the students and the fifth years had been moved to the back where they were farthest from the figures clothed in black cloaks. The sixth and seventh years were mixed in the middle some scared, some crying, and other stood there, wands in hand with looks of determination on their faces.  
  
All but five of the teachers were in the Great Hall. There were four teachers supervising the party that the younger years were having, and one of the teachers had gone to warn the houses of what was happening.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily stepped forward, she pushed past the teachers and walked up to Voldemort, "Voldemort, I am no longer ruled by you. You have no power over me like you did when I was younger. I will not go with you. You will leave." She pulled out her wand.  
  
"You little fool." He grabbed her.  
  
Lily pointed her wand behind her, and muttered, "Crontefine."  
  
Voldemort's expression changed from a one of triumph to one of fear. He let go of her just before he said for all to hear, "I will be back for you. You are a fool if you think that you could resist me. I will be back." With that he and his followers swept out of the Entrance Hall and disappeared into the forest.  
  
Lily dropped down onto her knees and kneeled beside the girl that Voldemort had attacked. She placed her hands on the girls head, and suddenly she and the girl were glowing with an eerie golden light.  
  
The girl opened her eyes just as Lily passed out. 


	16. Who is Who!

Who is Who?!  
  
~End of last chapter~  
  
. . . Lily passed out.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James pushed to the front of the crowd of panicked students just as Dumbledore conjured a stretcher for the two girls, and levitated them on to the floating stretchers.  
  
As he was nearing the scene snatches of conversation reached his ears, "Did you see him? OMG (oh my God), that was like the scariest thing that ever happened to me in like my entire life", "Who was that girl? She just walked up to You-Know-Who like he was nothing", "Did you see any of their faces?", "I could have sworn that I saw some of the older Slytherins in that pack".  
  
"What happened, are they alright?" asked James worried when he saw Lily lying on the stretcher, not moving. (A/N: She's still wearing her mask so James doesn't know who she is yet.)  
  
"James," said Dumbledore, "find Sally and Howard. Tell them I need everyone to go back to their common rooms, also tell them that I need them to start. They'll know what I mean."  
  
"Yes Professor," said James, wishing that he could go with the professors that were going to the Hospital Wing.  
  
James looked around; he spotted Sally and Howard trying to calm everyone down from on the teacher's platform.  
  
"Sally, Howard, Dumbledore wants everyone to go back to their common rooms, the professors are already there to get the younger kids in bed. And that you need to start something."  
  
Sally and Howard nodded, Howard turned toward the crowd. "Silencio," he said. Everyone was quiet.  
  
"We need everyone to go back to their common rooms. The professors are already there. We need everyone to remain calm while they sort out this mess. Prefects, I need you to come with me," announced Sally.  
  
Howard took the spell off the students and they all turned towards the door. The noise had returned full force.  
  
Once everyone was gone except the prefects Howard said, "I need you to spread out and make sure that everyone goes back to the common room. Stay in partners or threesomes, I don't want anyone getting lost, or possibly cornered, do not go outside, and use 'Petrificus Totalus' on anyone outside. James you're coming with me and Sally. We need your help."  
  
James followed them and the three of them went down out to Hagrid's hut.  
  
"Hagrid," said Sally, "Are you here?"  
  
"Sally is that you? What is it?" said Hagrid.  
  
"Dumbledore needs us to start," said Howard.  
  
"Right'o, let's get moving shall we?"  
  
The foursome walked back to the school and down to the dungeons.  
  
They walked into an empty room, Sally started a fire, Howard tossed in some Floo powder and the Minister's face appeared.  
  
"Minister," said Hagrid, "It's begun; we found 'er."  
  
"Did you bring the others with you?"  
  
Hagrid nodded and moved aside. Sally stepped up to the fire and said, "We have to start. It will begin soon; he too has found her, he tried to bring her with him when he came." Sally proceeded to explain the events of that night.  
  
Sally backed up and Howard stepped forward, "It will not soon be over. He will return for her and she must stop him."  
  
James was just standing there, he had no idea what was going on, he just wanted to know where Vixen was, and if she was alright.  
  
The Minister's face was taut, "Very well, I shall inform the others. Tell Dumbledore that, the seer has predicted a mate, but we don't know yet who he is."  
  
Sally, Howard, and Hagrid nodded, committing everything to memory. When the Minister was gone Sally turned to him, "Did you get all of that. It's imperative that you remember everything. Now I need you to go back to your dorm, don't tell anyone about what you saw, if anyone asks you were doing a sweep outside with me and Howard."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily woke up in the Hospital Wing. "What happened? Did He leave?"  
  
Dumbledore looked at her, "You fainted after you healed Ms. Richardson. And yes, He left, shortly before you fainted."  
  
Sally walked into the Hospital Wing. "Professor Dumbledore?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"We spoke to the Minister; he said to tell you the seer has predicted a mate, but who he is has yet to be determined."  
  
"What are you talking about? I didn't heal anybody. Actually I'm sure that I passed out right after Voldemort came."  
  
"Ms. Evans, you didn't faint right after Voldemort came. You went into a trance like state. You walked up right after Voldemort put the Curciatus Curse on Ms. Richardson. You banished him, healed Ms. Richardson, and *then* fainted."  
  
"Wait, that doesn't make sense though. The only person who can do healing like that is The One. She's supposed to be a legend. Not real."  
  
"Ms. Evans, I assume that you are familiar with the ancient prediction."  
  
Lily nodded. By this time Sally had left, Lily was alone with Susy Richardson in the next bed, Madame Pomfrey in her office, and Dumbledore standing next to her.  
  
"That prediction was made by one of the most respected seers in history. The same one who is in the muggle play 'Julius Caesar'."  
  
Lily nodded again.  
  
"That soothsayer predicted the arrival of The One. We have been able to connect that prediction with two others, the only difference between them is what the person is called, and the person is called the Vixen, or The Flower."  
  
Lily just stared at him wide eyed.  
  
"You Ms. Evans are The One, Vixen, and The Flower. You and, currently, you alone will have the power to banish Voldemort. We are not yet sure if you will be able to destroy him, we aren't even sure if you could reduce him to something that can me managed. But we do know that you are the only one who can stop him."  
  
Lily looked at him blankly, "I've read all of them. I came across the predictions, and references to them while I was doing some research in the Library, but none of them say how The One is supposed to do."  
  
"The Minister knows a seer, he has her monitored for any predictions, and she has predicted you a mate, the problem is that we don't know who he is or what his role is. The only thing we have are some theories that I have developed, each as unlikely as the next."  
  
"Do your best to stay safe, and keep your wand with you at all times," Dumbledore said, and he left.  
  
Lily just stared blankly into space, trying to absorb all the new information. 


	17. Telling Teri

Telling Teri  
  
Lily couldn't sleep, it was too much to take in. *I know,* she thought, *I'll tell Teri, she always knows what to do.* Quietly Lily snuck over to the corner and tapped the brick.  
  
"Wings," Lily whispered, "Wings, wake up," she said as she shook her friends shoulder.  
  
"Lily? Is that you?" asked Teri as she sat up.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Are you okay? We were all so worried about you, Moony, and Sirius both nearly had heart-attacks when they saw You-Know-Who grab you."  
  
"Teri, that's part of the problem. I don't remember any of it. Dumbledore said that I went into a trance like state right after Voldemort arrived. You see, I thought I had passed out."  
  
"Oh, Foxy are you alright? Tell me everything," Teri said in a gentle voice.  
  
"Well, I can only tell you what Dumbledore told me."  
  
"Then tell me that," said Teri, putting her arm around Lily's shoulders, "Everything will be alright."  
  
"Dumbledore said that I was The One, She Fox, and The Flower. You know what I'm talking about; you were the one who found those books. Anyway, I asked him some questions and he answered all of them, but still don't understand any of it."  
  
"That's alright Lily," said Teri, "We can go to the Library now and look into some of the books. They'll probably have the answers in there."  
  
"Okay," said Lily, they walked to the brick wall, found the brick labeled Library, and went through the door way.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James woke up, "Padfoot," Sirius who was asleep just rolled over. "Padfoot." James was standing next to him now. "Padfoot!" He dumped Sirius on the floor.  
  
"Whaddayawant?" said Sirius.  
  
"I want you to tell me who Vixen is," demanded James.  
  
"Prongs I can't tell you, you have to wait until she tells you herself. Leave me alone, it's three-thirty, I wanna sleep." Sirius was done talking, he climbed back onto the bed, curled up under the covers, and was back to sleep in three seconds flat.  
  
James went back to his own bed, *I have to know who she is,* he thought. *I have to protect her.*  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily walked up to the gargoyle, "sugar cubes," said Lily. The gargoyle moved aside permitting Lily to enter the stair well.  
  
"Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, "Ms. Evans, just the young woman I wanted to see. We need to talk about your new training. I trust that you made use of the Library," he said, eyes twinkling.  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Very good. Now, since that you have already mastered Defense Against the Dark Arts I believe that you can take that time to learn what you need to. Professor McGonagall will be instructing you on your seeing skills, Madame Pomfrey will be helping you with your healing, and I will be teaching you wandless magic. I'll set your schedule so that you will rotate every week, training with one each week. You start when classes resume. Is there anything else that you wish to ask me about?"  
  
"No, thank you Professor. You must have read my mind. Thank you." Lily went back to her room. She couldn't wait to get started. The threat of Voldemort was growing everyday. She wanted to be able to control this so that she could get ready to fight him when the time came.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James had been up since three-thirty thinking, it was ten. He was just about to fall asleep when he heard Remus saying to Sirius, "I hope Foxy is alright. I'm worried about her. She could be seriously hurt."  
  
"I know Moony. But don't worry about Foxy; Teri will know how she's doing."  
  
Suddenly it clicked. Lily was Foxy, and Foxy was Vixen. Lily was the one that everyone had been talking about last night. Lily was his Vixen, and she was the mysterious 'her' that everyone had been talking about. 


	18. Loving Lily

Loving Lily  
  
Classes had resumed, everyone was very somber, many contemplating the events of the Christmas Masquerade, others mourning the many new deaths of family and friends.  
  
James walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts, he already knew all the material for this class, but hem needed the credit to graduate. He sat down listening to something Peter was saying. After class started and others were busy taking notes, about the subject so that they would have something to study for the test, James looked around. *Where's Lily? She should be here,* he grinned, *not that she doesn't know this stuff, but doesn't she need the credit too?*  
  
Class was over an hour later, James walked to lunch with the other Marauders and Teri.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily was exhausted. She had just worked on healing with Madame Pomfrey for over an hour. She had healed several cuts on a desk that Madame Pomfrey had transfigured into a pig. She had fixed three of the pig's broken bones, and cured Madame Pomfrey's headache.  
  
She showered and headed down to lunch.  
  
"Hey Foxy," said Teri, she gave Lily a look that said plainly 'You will tell me where you were and what you were doing.' Lily smiled and nodded at her friend's obvious message.  
  
"Hey Wings," said Lily, "what are you guys doing?"  
  
"Oh, just talking about the curses that we learned in DADA today," said Remus turning around.  
  
"Where were you Lils?" asked Sirius.  
  
"Oh just doing some extra-curricular stuff that Dumbledore said I could exchange for my DADA classes."  
  
James was sitting silently, watching Lily. *She's so beautiful. I knew that she would be, Vixen was beautiful, and I knew that she Vixen's face would be as beautiful as the rest of her.*  
  
"Jamesie-boy," said Sirius waving his hand in front of James' face, "hello? Is anybody alive in there?"  
  
James was still looking at Lily, who was talking to Remus about something he hadn't understood from the lesson.  
  
"Ter-bear, Jamesie here seems to be having some problems concentrating," said Sirius.  
  
Teri grinned, she leaned over to Lily whispered something in her ear. Lily smirked, then, she walked around the table sat next to James, and kissed him. Smack on the lips.  
  
James just sat there in surprise. When Lily let him go he had a goofy smile on his face.  
  
"Ya' know James, I've always like you. I think that might be one of the reasons that I always fought you; because I was afraid of you getting too close."  
  
"Will you be my girlfriend?" he asked, still smiling like an idiot.  
  
"I can't," said Lily turning away.  
  
James' smile vanished, "Why not?"  
  
"I just can't," with that Lily stood up and ran out of the Great Hall.  
  
James just sat there, his glazed look was back, but this time instead of being a bemused look, his face wore a look of despair.  
  
"I think our little boy has grown-up and fallen in love," said Remus. He continued in a more somber tone, "Then, he got his heart broken."  
  
James looked at him and asked, "Why won't she go out with me?"  
  
Teri's face had an expression of confusion and fear. Sirius was the first to notice, "Teri, baby, what's wrong? You can tell me, it'll be alright."  
  
Teri looked at him, her expression never changing. She stood up and pulled him out of the Great Hall.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Teri and Sirius went to one of the empty classrooms near the Great Hall.  
  
"There's a problem Siri. You're in Divination, right?" He nodded and she continued. "I would assume that the crack-pot woman that is your teacher has told you about the predictions surrounding The One." He nodded again thinking about the things they had been learning ever since Winter Break had ended, "Well, Lily is The One. And when James asked her to be his girlfriend she freaked. You remember what happened at the Christmas Masquerade. Lily feels responsible, even though she can't remember any of it Dumbledore told her what happened, and she's afraid that that it'll happen to whoever gets close to her."  
  
"She told you all that?" asked Sirius incredulously.  
  
"No, but I know her well enough to know what I'm telling to be the truth. The only reason that she doesn't push me away is that she know that she'll hurt me more by pushing me away, than if I was her fault that I get hurt."  
  
(A/N: yes I do know that this scene is REALLY corny)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily ran back to her room, *Why did he have to do that? Why couldn't he settle for friendship? It's not like he has to have me for his girlfriend when he has like a third of the population at his feet.*  
  
Lily just lay in bed, not moving.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Teri walked in at four, "Lily, honey, I brought you your homework."  
  
"Urggenurmf," said Lily.  
  
"It'll be okay Foxy."  
  
Lily turned onto her side and looked at Teri, "But he's going to hate me now."  
  
"Lily, darling, James doesn't hate you. He's just a little confused."  
  
Lily just lay there, *But he does hate me. I know it. It's not like he'll want to be friends now that I've turned him down like the rest of the guys who've asked me out. And it's not like he's going to forgive me.*  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
In the boys dorms Remus and Sirius were having a very similar problem with James.  
  
Sirius and Remus were in the corner, Sirius was telling Remus what Teri had told him about Lily, and James was lying on the bed looking like a giant six-foot-long lump.  
  
"I'm telling you Moony, we have to tell him."  
  
"Padfoot, if he finds out he's going to freak, and then, he'll be even more depressed. Do you have any idea what if feels like to find out that the two girls that you're in love with are the same one. Then, you realize that she's stomped on your heart. Wouldn't you wonder why? I mean, she's practically told him to his face that she's in love with him. But only when she was behind a mask, he'll wonder which one is the real her, and then, if he comes to the conclusion that both of her personalities are part of her and are in the same person he's going to wonder if she was lying to him, or telling the truth. And if she was telling the truth, why would she say no to going on a date with him"  
  
"When you put it that way. . ." said Sirius, "I guess your right, but if this gets worse, I'm telling him. To hell with his wonders, he's like my twin; he deserves to know the truth, the whole truth."  
  
"Deal." 


	19. Making Up

Making Up  
  
Several weeks had passed since the incident in at lunch in the Great Hall. Lily had studiously avoided James and the rest of the Marauders to the best of her ability.  
  
Lily walked into the Transfiguration classroom. Class started in a few minutes and there were already several students in the room waiting to begin the Advanced Transfiguration class. They were to begin studying the theories behind the animangus transformation. Now Lily being an animangus already new everything there was to know about this unit. She took the time in this class to practice the wandless magic that she had been learning from Professor Dumbledore, and the seeing that she had been working on with Professor McGonagall.  
  
Class had begun and McGonagall had begun to lecture them and most of the class was taking notes, with the exception of Lily, James, and Sirius. Lily was levitating small objects with her hand, James was staring sadly into space, and Sirius was interrupting the lecture with little flicks of his wand that caused several people to squawk while McGonagall was talking.  
  
Lily was getting bored. She had mastered the levitation that she had been working on so she had nothing to do; no one was hurt so she couldn't practice her healing; and well McGonagall was still lecturing and wasn't in her animangus form, so Lily couldn't try to see through that.  
  
*I wish I could talk to James. I hope he isn't still mad at me.*  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James was bored out of his mind. He had nothing to do, he had already mastered this unit last year when McGonagall had mentioned it in passing, and well He couldn't stop thinking about Lily and if she was still mad at him for asking her out.  
  
A piece of paper hit him in the knee; he leaned down to pick it up off the floor when he noticed that it was hovering by his desk.  
  
'James- I'm sorry about turning you down, but I can't explain why. I hope you don't hate me. I still like you and all, but I don't think that we would work out.  
  
--Lily'  
  
James just stared at the note. *She thought I was mad at her?*  
  
He turned the parchment over and wrote:  
  
'Lily- I was never mad at you.'  
  
He couldn't think of anything more to say on the subject so he wrote:  
  
'This is SO exciting. McGonagall is probably the least exciting speaker that you could ever hope for. And besides, I already know all this junk.  
  
--James'  
  
The piece of parchment slid off the table on its own, hovered about three inches off the floor and went straight to Lily where it floated up the side of the table and slid in front of her. She pulled out a quill and began writing.  
  
'James- Thank you for not hating me for what I did, I know I would have.  
  
And I do believe that McGonagall would be a bit more interesting if she transformed. Maybe you should suggest it.  
  
--Lily'  
  
They continued passing notes until Sirius took the parchment from James. He wrote to both of them:  
  
'The two of you are thoroughly nauseating.'  
  
'Thanks Siri'  
  
'No problemo Foxy.'  
  
It seemed then that Sirius decided to make the class a little more interesting, he pointed his wand at McGonagall and muttered something. Contrary to popular belief Sirius was very smart; he just chose not to put his brains into his schoolwork, even so, he managed to get near top marks, it was actually pretty amazing.  
  
McGonagall turned into a tabby cat with markings around her eyes, and quickly transformed back. "MISTER BLACK, YOU WILL RECEIVE DETENTION FOR THAT LITTLE STUNT, AND IF YOU EVER DO THAT DURING A LECTURE AGAIN I WILL PEREONALLY SEE TO IT THAT YOU ARE SCRUBBING THE SLYTHERIN COMMON ROOMS WITH YOUR TOUNGE!"  
  
By now everyone in the class was laughing and Sirius looked at McGonagall and said, "But Minnie, I was just trying to liven things up. It made the lecture so much more interesting," at the death glare that she gave him he added quickly, "not that it wasn't interesting to start with. I just thought that people could do with a little demonstration."  
  
"Mister Black, do not call me Minnie, and you now have two more detentions. You will report to Mr. Filch when classes are over. Class dismissed."  
  
The students streamed out of the classroom, all talking about Sirius' latest prank.  
  
The rest of the day was almost completely un-eventful. At the end of the day Lily walked up to the Library to finish her homework. When she was finished she walked up to Madame Libran asked for the key to the Restricted Section, and went to look for a book on the predictions surrounding The One.  
  
Four hours and seventy-three books later Lily found what she was looking for in a book titled, 'Good and Evil, What Happens When They Mix'.  
  
'The One who will come and stop The Evil is said to be under The Evil's control. By looking at the many predictions surrounding The One several theories have been produced about the power that The Evil holds over The One. First is the theory that believes that The One was once the lover of The Evil in a former life, the second is that The One was placed under a spell that caused her to be under The Evil's control or bound to him in some way, the third is that The Evil is holding The One, or one of The One's family captive.  
  
~*Flashback*~  
  
"Hello my friend," said a cold hard voice.  
  
A young woman was standing in a dark room; she was wearing a red dress in the style of medieval England.  
  
"I'm not your friend, let my sister go," said the woman.  
  
"Only if you give me what I want," came the reply.  
  
"Never," said the woman, "I can't give it to you and you know it."  
  
"On the contrary, my dear, you can, and you will or I will kill your sister."  
  
Two men in black cloaks walked in carrying an unconscious girl who looked like and older version of Petunia into the room.  
  
"Let her go."  
  
"You little fool." He pointed his wand at her; there was a flash of green light. . .  
  
~*End Flashback*~ 


	20. Aimless Boring Junk with some info that'...

Aimless Boring Junk (with some info that is kinda important)  
  
Lily found herself lying on the floor of the Library.  
  
*Oh my God,* she thought, *Well, I guess that explains what Voldemort was talking about. He and I must be the recreations of whomever those people were.* She sat down in a chair, *I have to go tell Dumbledore.*  
  
She put the books on the table and ran to the Headmaster's office. She stopped in front of the gargoyle and said, "Lemon Heads," the gargoyle sprung aside and Lily ran up the stair well.  
  
"Dumbledore," she cried, "I figured out what he wants."  
  
Dumbledore was staring out the window, "What is it?"  
  
"My baby," she said, "but the problem is that I don't have a baby."  
  
"Interesting," said Dumbledore.  
  
Lily explained about the passage in the book and her vision, "I think that Voldemort and I might be some kind of reincarnation of the original One and the original Evil."  
  
"I need to write to the Ministry about this," said Dumbledore.  
  
Lily left Dumbledore's office and went back to the common room.  
  
There she found Teri, "Wings, I've got to talk to you about something."  
  
Teri excused herself, and she and Lily went back to their room.  
  
"Wings, I figured out what He wants." Lily again explained about everything she had found and when she was finished Teri just looked at her.  
  
"Wow."  
  
"Tell me about it. Wings, I don't know what I'm going to do."  
  
"Well don't worry Foxy, we'll figure something out."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily received another letter from Stag that day.  
  
'Dear Vixen- I've missed you. I hope that you're alright after the incident at Christmas. I haven't had much to do lately. Most of the stuff that we're supposed to be learning I already know; except for how to charm live animals to move. I can't wait for the Quidditch season to start, I LOVE QUIDDITCH!!!  
  
Love Always- Stag'  
  
'Dear Stag- I've missed you too. I'm alright. I've been taking extra classes to help hone my skills in case He attacks again. I haven't had much to do either. I asked Dumbledore if I could change some to the classes that I know enough about to other things. He said I could so it's all worked out. And Flitwick says to swish right, I find that you could swish left, and if you do it right you get the same affect, only sometimes it's stronger.  
  
Forever Yours- Vixen' 


	21. Back to Being Enemies?

Back to the Being Enemies?  
  
Lily was bored. She had just finished and owled her muggle school work back to her parents. She had just finished calculus, in mathematics, her essay for English, and her report for history.  
  
"Wings?" she called, "I'm bored!"  
  
"I don't care Foxy" replied Teri. Lily was bouncing on the bed.  
  
"Foxy stop bouncing."  
  
"But, Wiiiiings, I'm bored. I have nothing to do."  
  
"Then, why don't you go explore the forest."  
  
"Can't I've memorized it already."  
  
"You could go explore the mountains."  
  
"But we were going to do that together."  
  
"Go talk to the guys," said Teri. "You're friends with them right?"  
  
"I can tell when I'm not wanted," said Lily, and she left Teri to prepare for her date with Sirius.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily snuck into the guys dorms. Sirius was already in the common room waiting for Teri, and it was Saturday, at ten o'clock; all the guys were still asleep. Lily put herself under an invisibility charm, and transformed into her fox form.  
  
She climbed on to Remus' bed and blew in his ear. He sat up, knocking Lily off the bed, and screamed. This woke up Peter who seemed to be having some kind of nightmare, and Peter screamed like a little girl. The only one left was James. Lily walked across the messy floor and leapt onto James' bed.  
  
Lily started to knead his face. This managed to make him open his eyes. He didn't see anything, but he felt something so he grabbed Lily. This canceled her invisibility charm, and James shrieked and dropped her when he saw what he was holding.  
  
The boys were all in a corner staring at Lily, who was standing on the floor in one of Sirius' shirts staring right back at them. From what they could see she was having spasms. Of course it looked rather odd for a fox to be shaking with laughter, but indeed that was what she was doing.  
  
Lily regained her composer and skipped over to the door. When she got there she turned around and looked at them, apparently waiting for them to open the door. Remus, looking like the devil had shown up at his door, walked cautiously up, ready to bolt in the other direction at the first sign of attack, and nudged the door, just enough for her to get through.  
  
She slipped out, and came back in, in her human form.  
  
She started laughing. "What's so funny?" demanded Peter.  
  
"You.. three.. are.. the.. funniest.. people.. to .. scare," said Lily gasping between laughs.  
  
The boys had stopped cowering, "What are you talking about?!" said James.  
  
Lily by now had managed to stop laughing uncontrollably, 'The fox was mine," she said. "She would never hurt you unless I told her to."  
  
"YOU MEAN YOU SET THAT ANIMAL ON US?!!!!" shouted James.  
  
"Yup," replied Lily laughing again.  
  
"You're going to get it now," said James, "Furnetilus."  
  
Lily was ready for this, "Habitalius."  
  
"Sangential."  
  
"Liberantiao"  
  
"Kintalkirna."  
  
"Perinostinag."  
  
"Orbentakeeque."  
  
When they were done, Lily used the counter curses that were in the book she and James had written, and helped the shape, that was James, onto its feet.  
  
"I bet you didn't read the book that Dumbledore gave you, did you?" asked Lily looking at the form in front of her.  
  
The thing shook from side to side.  
  
"Well, let's get you to the Hospital Wing," said Lily. "Truce, I won't curse you anymore, if you don't curse me. And remember, I have new curse up my sleeve; not only that, I've figured out how you find the counter curses to your spells, so I know how to get the counter. You don't."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James walked down to the Great Hall. It had taken five hours for Madame Pomfrey to rid him on the curses, and he was starving.  
  
Lily was talking to a cute Hufflepuff by the name of Daniel Hanover. She had him captivated, and when she walked back over to the other Marauders and Teri she was smiling.  
  
". . . Daniel and I have a date tomorrow," he heard her say.  
  
"Foxy, that's wonderful!" said Teri, she was excited for her friend and was already babbling away about what Lily was going to wear for her date.  
  
James was boiling mad. *How could she do this to me?!* he thought angrily. *She's MY girlfriend.* A new voice popped into his head, *She's not yours, she's Stag's girlfriend. And well that Hanover guy kinda looks like you, so I wouldn't worry, maybe she's just trying to find out who you are.* *Shut up,* he told the new voice. *I'm just trying to help.* *Well, don't.* he was looking at Lily's smiling face thinking about how much he wanted those smiled to be for him, but they weren't. They were for Daniel Hanover.  
  
Lily went back to her room. It was going to be her first date ever. 


	22. Several Random Scenes

Several Random Scenes  
  
Lily walked down to the Entrance Hall. She was pumped, it she was going to meet Daniel, her first date in the history of her dating career. *He's kind sweet, adorable. He's the right height* she thought happily, *and best of all he might be my Stag.*  
  
"Hey Lily," said Daniel when she arrived in the Entrance Hall. He handed her a bouquet of lilies.  
  
"Oh, thank you!" said Lily as she buried her face in the flowers.  
  
"Shall we go?" They walked down to the horseless carriage that would take them to Hogsmeade.  
  
When they go there, they went into the Three Broomsticks. "Two butterbeers please," said Daniel when the waitress came up to them to take their order.  
  
They sat talking for a while and when they were done with their drinks they went back up to the castle.  
  
They sat in front of the willow tree beside the lake and relaxed.  
  
Lily and Daniel sat by the lake and when it came time for dinner Lily and Daniel said at the same time, "Lily" "Daniel" "You go first."  
  
"Look Daniel, I really like you, but I don't feel any spark. I hope it's okay, I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything, but I think it would be better if we were just friends."  
  
"Whew. . ." said Daniel, "I was just about to say the same thing."  
  
Tension dispersed they walked back to the castle talking amiably like old friends.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Sooo, Foxy," said Teri when they were back in their room, "how was your date, and why didn't you sit with Daniel at dinner?"  
  
"Oh well, we decided to just be friends. There wasn't any spark, and I guess he noticed too."  
  
"That sucks."  
  
"Not really," replied Lily, "I have a new friend."  
  
"Right," said Teri disbelievingly, "You're not at all disappointed that it didn't work out."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile:  
  
"James, get off your ass, and help me with this trunk," said Sirius in the boy's dorm.  
  
"Yeah, sure, whatever," said James not moving.  
  
"James what in bloody hell is wrong with you? You've been sulking ever since yesterday at dinner."  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
"James! Listen to me."  
  
"Right you are Sirius," said James in a dazed voice.  
  
"Fine! If you won't tell me what's wrong, I'm going to tell Lily that you like her."  
  
That got his attention, "You can't do that!"  
  
"And why not?"  
  
"Because she would kill me, and because she would hate me for not telling her who I am."  
  
"James you're not making any sense."  
  
The look on James' face was one of worry, panic, and everything else that could be tied to those emotions.  
  
"She's Vixen, and she would kill me for not telling her when I found out."  
  
"Well, then why don't you tell her now?"  
  
"I mean it's not like she's going to put you under a guillotine."  
  
"But, she would hate me. And I couldn't live with that."  
  
"Fine I won't tell her, but if you don't do something about it I will."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Moony!" hissed Sirius.  
  
"What?"  
  
"He's figured it out. He knows, and he's all torn up inside."  
  
"That can't be good."  
  
"Moony, I think we should act now."  
  
"We can't do that Padfoot, Fate works in mysterious ways, and I don't think messing with it is a good idea."  
  
"But, what if interfering is what we're supposed to do? I mean what if that's what Fate has in store for us?"  
  
"Padfoot, if Lily and James are meant to be, everything will work itself out, with or without our help."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sirius went to Lily and Teri's room to try and reason with Teri.  
  
"Teri, baby, we have a problem. James knows and he's getting torn up all over the place."  
  
"What are we supposed to do about it?"  
  
"I don't know, if I knew that I would have done it already."  
  
"I guess," said Teri, "so, do you have any ideas?"  
  
"Nope, I just needed to find someone who would agree with me that they need help."  
  
"Well, I agree, but I don't know what to do about it."  
  
"Well, I'll just tell her."  
  
"And will she freak? Cause, that's what Moony is worried about; you know, messing with Fate and all that."  
  
"Er. . . I don't think so. We'll just have to wait and see."  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me."  
  
(Scene fades.)  
  
"Did I ever tell you that I love your eyes. . ."  
  
"SIRIUS!" 


	23. Ominous and Obvious

Ominous and Obvious  
  
Lily was walking to the Valentine's planning prefects meeting with Daniel (Danny). They walked into the meeting room and sat down.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen," began Sally, "we need to come up with something to do for Valentine's Day."  
  
"I would really prefer not to have another masquerade if we can help it," said Howard. Cheering could be heard from several of the prefects at his request to not do a masquerade.  
  
"We could do a music competition or something, and the winner gets a prize," suggested one of the seventh year prefects from Hufflepuff.  
  
"I like it," said Sally, "how about the rest of you?"  
  
There were general sounds of agreement.  
  
"Wonderful," said Howard," it seems that we have no objections. We'll have a competition, we could do it on Valentine's Day, but in order to do so we need to hold try outs. I will need three prefects from each house and we'll hold the try outs at the end of the week."  
  
"We'll have Dumbledore make an announcement at dinner tomorrow, and we'll need you to make fliers to hang in your common rooms," continued Sally, "each group will only be allowed to sing two songs, and the audience will vote who is the winner at the end."  
  
"Meeting adjourned."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James hung the last flier in the first year boy's dorm, *I wonder what Lily's doing,* he sighed. It was useless, nothing he did could get his mind off of Lily, and the nights were the worst. He couldn't sleep, and when he did she was in his dreams, but the dream would always end with her dead on the floor in front of him right before he was killed.  
  
(A/N: If you read GoF you will see that according to the order in which the echoes come out of Voldie's wand Lily was killed first.)  
  
*Nothing is ever going to happen to you Lily,* thought James fiercely for the millionth time, *I won't let anything hurt you, ever.* Little did he know that his promise was impossible to keep.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily was preparing to go on stage. She and James were the only prefects who had decided to perform. Try-outs were to be that night and she wanted to get in. She added the last of the glitter, curled the ends of her hair, and turned to find Teri doing the same.  
  
They walked down to the Great Hall where they awaited their turn. They heard Sally compliment the last group and walked on stage when Howard called them up.  
  
They sang their song:  
  
'Loving you is like breathing, I just can't stop. You keep me goin', It takes no thought. I want to be with you forever, Together forever more, With You.  
  
'My love for you is simple, I cannot seem to go, The words you say to me, Always seem to flow. Can't expect me to live If you ever let me go.  
  
'Loving you is like breathing, I just can't stop. You keep me goin', It takes no thought. I want to be with you forever, Together forever more, With You.  
  
'Just hold me close in your arms, Let me stay for all time. And keep me safe and warm, Life would be sublime. I wish us together, You will forever mine.  
  
'Loving you is like breathing, I just can't stop. You keep me goin', It takes no thought. I want to be with you forever, Together forever more, With You.'  
  
"That was wonderful," said Sally, "we look forward to seeing you at the show." Both Lily and Teri noticed that Sally never once checked with the others, but her statement was never objected to.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
A small shadow lurked near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, "Master," said the figure, "There is to be another opportunity for you."  
  
"Really?" came the icy reply from the tall figure.  
  
The small figure shivered and cowered lower, "A competition, everyone who isn't performing will be in the audience, the rest will be on or back stage. Here is a program, it has the people on it, and when they are singing."  
  
"Wonderful," the tall figure said, if you looked closely you could see the beginnings of a smirk on his swarthy face. 


	24. Sing Your Heart Out

Sing Your Heart Out  
  
Lily and Teri were in their room, they had just finished getting their make- up on, and their clothes set to perfection. They were checking over each other's appearances to be sure that everything was perfect.  
  
Once they were done, they walked down to the antechamber that they were to convene in for the concert. They checked in with Sally and waited for Howard to announce their turn. The show had just started and Lily and Teri were second to last.  
  
They listened to about fifteen groups each of them had two songs, and when it was their turn they stood and stepped onto the stage. The lights made it so that they couldn't see into the audience, they looked at each other and the two of them started to sing. . .  
  
'Loving you is like breathing, I just can't stop. You keep me goin', It takes no thought. I want to be with you forever, Together forever more, With You.  
  
'My love for you is simple, I cannot seem to go, The words you say to me, Always seem to flow. Can't expect me to live If you ever let me go.  
  
'Loving you is like breathing, I just can't stop. You keep me goin', It takes no thought. I want to be with you forever, Together forever more, With You.  
  
'Just hold me close in your arms, Let me stay for all time. And keep me safe and warm, Life would be sublime. I wish us together, You will forever mine.  
  
'Loving you is like breathing, I just can't stop. You keep me goin', It takes no thought. I want to be with you forever, Together forever more, With You.'  
  
When the song was over the audience was ecstatic. The music started again and the audience quieted down. Lily and Teri sang their second song:  
  
'You were mine, I thought you would love me, forever Everything was going fine, But she was too clever, She took what was mine, She took you away.  
  
'I want you to come back to me, Please be mine again. Please come, for we Were written in pen Down in History.  
  
'You were mine, I thought you would love me, forever Everything was going fine, But she was too clever, She took what was mine, She took you away.  
  
'I could have been together, boy, Were completely blind, I was your toy You tossed me to find A new game to play.  
  
'You were mine, I thought you would love me, forever Everything was going fine, But she was too clever, She took what was mine, She took you away.'  
  
Some of the girls were crying, but for the most part everyone was extremely excited. They cheered like there was no tomorrow. Lily and Teri exited just as the Marauders walked on with Howard.  
  
"And last to perform, but certainly not the least are the Marauders."  
  
James walked to the front of the stage, "I would like to dedicate this first song to a very special girl." James dropped a golden rose onto the front of the stage, then, he and Sirius began to sing; Sirius was also playing the guitar, and Remus was on the drums.  
  
'I'm going to love you forever No matter what happens I could never sever My heart. You are my world, The center of my universe  
  
'I wish you were with me for all time Never parted from the other. You have my heart and always have I hope you never think of me as a brother. I want you to love me back Forever and always.  
  
'I'm going to love you forever No matter what happens I could never sever My heart. You are my world, The center of my universe  
  
'Do you love me as much as I love you? I hope your love for me never dies, I no my love won't ever die out I want you to know that I'll love you forever. Stay with me and never leave, Forever and always.  
  
'I'm going to love you forever No matter what happens I could never sever My heart. You are my world, The center of my universe  
  
When James dropped the rose Lily gasped, *OMG he's the one I've been writing to.* When the song was over Lily sat down, still dazed. *Wow, he even wrote a song for me.*  
  
Sirius walked up to the microphone and said, "Now, this next song is for the love of my life."  
  
'You are in my heart You hold my life in the palm of your hand I'd do anything you ask And never question a thing I want you to be mine But if not. . . I want you to be happy.  
  
'I hope you'll be happy I want to make you so I'll try my best never to be mad I never want to see you sad. But if you are. . . I'll be the one to wipe away your tears.  
  
'You are in my heart You hold my life in the palm of your hand I'd do anything you ask And never question a thing I want you to be mine But if not. . . I want you to be happy.  
  
'You'll have my heart forev'r Gone before I knew it. If I have your heart I'll ne'er break it. I'm twisted around your finger I'm yours today. . . I will be yours now and forever more.  
  
'You are in my heart You hold my life in the palm of your hand I'd do anything you ask And never question a thing I want you to be mine But if not. . . I want you to be happy.'  
  
At the end of the song the audience was treated to seeing Teri dash across the stage and kiss the lead singer.  
  
Howard came out smiling, "Ladies and gentlemen if you will please cast your vote, we'll have the winners sing one final song." 


	25. Off to a Lovers Meeting this time for r...

Off to a Lovers Meeting - this time for real  
  
'Stag- I want to see you again. Go to the weeping willow tonight, ten pm. Someone's going to meet you there, she'll lead you to me. I loved the song. I can't wait to see you.'  
  
Vixen'  
  
Lily scribbled the note and after folding it up she placed it on the edge of the stage, right behind the curtain.  
  
When the song was over, she and the other singers went out onto the stage, and took a bow behind the Marauders.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James took his final bow and followed the other singers off the stage. That's when he saw it. It was a small folded up slip of paper sealed with a blank seal. He picked it up and when he looked at it more closely he noticed that in tiny letters the note was addressed to him.  
  
He ran the rest of the way to the common room followed by Remus, and Sirius taking the time to snog Teri between steps.  
  
James reached the dorm in record time. He opened the letter. . .  
  
When Remus finally made it to the dorm, huffing and puffing trying to keep up with James' pace, James leaped on him and started to babble, "She wants . . . meet . . . willow . . . tonight . . ."  
  
"Whoa!" said Remus, still trying to catch his breath, "One sentence at a time. Now tell me again."  
  
"She wants to meet me again. But what if she freaks, what if she wants to see me to breakup?"  
  
"Prongs, if she wanted to break up with you wouldn't she have done so already by now? And the two of you aren't officially dating, so technically if you do 'breakup' then it couldn't be called a breakup since you two never went out."  
  
"Moony," James whined, "You're not helping."  
  
"Well, what are you waiting for, you only have half an hour, that contest took longer than we thought."  
  
"OMG!" James started to run around looking for a comb, clean robes, and the other things that he would need.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily had just finished putting on her robe. She had managed to pull Teri away from Sirius long enough to get her to tell her what she needed Teri to do.  
  
Lily put on an invisibility charm, and waited for Teri to transform and fly out the window before she tapped the brick for the back entrance to the school.  
  
She grabbed a cloak and walked quickly to the forest.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
James used his invisibility cloak to get out of the castle, and he waited for the person he was to meet under the willow.  
  
He heard a whooo from above him. He looked up to see the white owl that had taken the letter to Vixen staring at him, seemingly annoyed.  
  
"Are you the one I'm supposed to follow?" he asked amiably.  
  
The owl nodded at him and took off. He followed the bird into the forest and into a small clearing . . .  
  
(A/N: Short I know, sorry. But it was a really good ending place.) 


	26. Knowing

Knowing  
  
End of last chapter: . . . followed the bird into a small clearing.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
There was no one there, at least not that he could see. He looked at the snowy owl again, "Are you sure this is the right place?"  
  
The owl looked at him and gave him what he supposed was a glare.  
  
"So is this where I'm supposed to wait?"  
  
The owl nodded at him, and flew off into the night, fading against the backdrop of night sky.  
  
James sat down in the grass, *I guess I'll just have to wait for Lily here.*  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily watched as Teri flew away. She watched as James sat down and sighed.  
  
She took the invisibility spell off of herself and walked up behind James. *Here goes nothing.* "Hello James," she said to him from behind.  
  
He swung around and looked at her, "Wow, you look beautiful, you know that right?"  
  
She looked at him curiously, "You know who I am?"  
  
James just smiled.  
  
"H-h-how?" she was a little unnerved at the fact that he knew who she was before she found out who he was.  
  
"I figured it out around Christmas. I heard people talking about the mysterious 'Vixen', so I knew that it was you when you had your mask. And I also heard Remus talking about how he hoped that you were all right the night of the Christmas Masquerade. And that made me think about all the times I heard Remus and Teri calling you 'Foxy', and from there it all just, kinda, fell into place."  
  
"Oh."  
  
James did his best and almost succeeded in trying not to grin at her ignorance, "I take it you didn't know until today."  
  
Lily just shook her head.  
  
Lily and James just stood in the clearing for a while longer before James started to notice her shivering and led her back to the castle.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
When Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Teri woke up that morning and found Lily and James sleeping on the couch, they left them alone long enough to snap a picture and conjure a bucket of ice water.  
  
Lily and James woke to find their friends standing around them, all laughing their eyes out. Not to mention they were soaking wet, and freezing.  
  
"The four of you really need to be taught a lesson," said Lily, "but not today, you'll learn when your least expecting it. Trust me, you'll not forget this lesson any time soon." And with that she burst into laughter.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The weeks wore on, and the population of Hogwarts gradually became used to Lily and James not fighting constantly.  
  
Today they were in Advanced Transfiguration.  
  
"Now, class, I want you to watch very closely to what I'm doing," said McGonagall. She transformed, this time on purpose. But unlike all the other times she transformed very slowly, and the class was able to watch as her body started to shrink and gradually change into a cat.  
  
She transformed back with a little pop and stood in front of them, lecturing on all the dangers and complications that could happen when transforming slowly, things that could happen if certain circumstances were to be.  
  
Just then, Dumbledore came in; he was looking frazzled, 'Minerva, I need Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Teri all to come with me now."  
  
McGonagall stopped talking and nodded. The five of them left with their things and followed Dumbledore to the Entrance Hall. On the way there he explained about the happenings of Voldemort and his followers, the things that weren't published in the papers.  
  
When they got to the Entrance Hall Dumbledore stopped walking, "I need the five of you to help me. You are all part of the prophecy about The One. 'Vixen shall reign, and the Stag she be her guide. The Dog will follow quietly on padded feet, and the Owl will fly silently behind. The Wolf shall protect, but condemns another. While, one they know will betray them all.' I know that you won't be familiar with this one, but that's simply because it was just predicted by one of the Ministry seers." He looked at them.  
  
Their faces were a mixture of horror, fear, and determination.  
  
"You must all be careful. I do not want you to get hurt. It would mean the end of the world as we know it if you, Lily, don't complete your destiny." 


	27. Chapter 27 One with a happy ending, sort...

Chapter 27. One with a happy ending, sorta.  
  
As Dumbledore was talking to the five, the betrayer was out talking to his master.  
  
"Master," the small figure said, "I didn't see you at the contest."  
  
"Of course you didn't," was the cold reply from a tall figure swathed in a black cloak. "I wasn't there."  
  
"Where were you?"  
  
"If you must know, I was waiting for a time that would allow me to explore the castle once again so that I might familiarize myself with the corridors." He paused, and if you looked carefully you could see the beginnings of a smirk. "I want to be able to execute my next plan with perfection."  
  
"Oh."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The five walked back up to the common room.  
  
"What was Dumbledore talking about, Lily? The whole destiny thing," asked Sirius, oddly somber.  
  
"Oh, well, you already know about the whole, I'm The One thing. And it seems he was sent a missive that told him of a new prophecy," said Lily, somewhat absently. "The only problem is I don't know what my destiny is."  
  
"Don't worry Foxy," said Remus swing his arm around her to give her a hug, "it'll all work itself out."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
They all sat down around the dying fire, each contemplating how the prophecy had to do with them. The only one missing was Peter.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It was Saturday. And it was raining.  
  
The five had fallen asleep in the common room, Teri and Sirius in one of the giant armchairs, Sirius' arm around Teri; and Lily between Remus and James on the couch.  
  
It was the beginning of spring break. (A/N: this takes place in late April. And yes, I am aware that spring break is in march.)  
  
Lily was just waking up; when she got up so did Teri. Seemingly reading each others minds they went to the kitchens and brought back breakfast for themselves, and the sleepy guys still sleeping on in front of the fire.  
  
Unsurprisingly, they were the only ones in the common room; everyone else had left on the train that morning.  
  
Lily and Teri lay the food on the table, and after they had finished eating they went to their room to take a shower.  
  
They came back to find the table free of food, and the guys most likely in their dorm.  
  
"Wings?"  
  
"Yeah Foxy?"  
  
"What's going to happen to us now?"  
  
"I'm not too clear on that myself. But before it happens we need to figure out who the people in the prophecy are."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Guys, I'm worried about Lily," said James to the guys. They had woken to find the girls gone, and breakfast on the table. "What if something does happen to her before she completes this destiny of hers?"  
  
"Nothing is going to happen to her Prongs," said Remus, pulling on a clean shirt. "Besides, you have to guide her through whatever is happening."  
  
"Moony, I don't know the first thing about guiding anyone through anything."  
  
Sirius joined in, "You don't have to Prongs. If what this prophecy says is true, then you'll already know everything you need to."  
  
"I guess."  
  
"Who is this betrayer, and who is the owl?" asked Remus.  
  
"How should I know?" replied Sirius, "But if I had to guess, I'd bet I'd say Teri is the owl. And then, I'd say that either Malfoy or Snape is the betrayer."  
  
"Hey guys," said Teri walking in with Lily.  
  
"We need your opinion," said Lily, "who do you think are the people in the prophecy that Dumbledore just told us?"  
  
The boys all looked at each other. "The Stag is most likely Prongs, the Dog, probably Padfoot. And the Wolf, probably me," said Remus.  
  
"Oh," said Lily. "How do you figure that you're the mystery people in the prophecy?"  
  
"If we told you, you would report us," said Sirius.  
  
"We wouldn't do something like that. Besides we know that Lily is the vixen person, and that I'm the Owl," said Teri.  
  
"And you know this how?" said James skeptically.  
  
"Because," said Lily, "we're animangi. And those happen to be our forms."  
  
Teri got a look on her face, "If you three think you're the ones from the prophecy then that must mean that you're animangi too!"  
  
Lily looked excited, "Can we see your forms?"  
  
The three boys looked at each other and shrugged.  
  
"I can't show you my form," said Remus, "simply because I don't have one as you two should know, but these two do."  
  
"C'mon guys," pleaded Teri, "Will you show us? Pretty please with a cherry on top."  
  
"Fine," said Sirius. "But only if you show us your forms too."  
  
"Deal," said Lily smiling.  
  
In an instant James and Sirius transformed into a glorious silver stag and a black shaggy dog.  
  
They changed back and looked at the girls expectantly.  
  
Lily and Teri smiled at the three boys and in unison they transformed.  
  
Lily a cute red fox with a white tipped tail, and Teri into a snowy white owl.  
  
When they changed back James nearly shouted, "You were the owl I asked to give my letter to Lily!"  
  
Teri just smiled.  
  
"You knew all along! And you never told me?!" cried Lily.  
  
Teri started laughing. "The two of you are so funny when you're mad at someone together."  
  
Lily playfully slapped Teri on the shoulder and started laughing with her friend.  
  
The laughter proved contagious and soon they were all nearly in tears. 


	28. Finals! End of The Year Chaos

FINALS!!! End of The Year Chaos  
  
The five were sitting in the common room, not really doing anything. The school was almost completely empty; everyone seemed to have gone home for the holiday.  
  
Remus suddenly sat straight up, "Hey guys," he said, "I just realized, that out of all of us, Wormtail is the only one who wasn't mentioned in the prophecy."  
  
"Yeah," said Sirius in response, "I feel kinda bad, I mean, we've kinda forgotten about him."  
  
James said, "I wonder where he keeps disappearing to. I mean, he's in all of our classes, but he seems to be everywhere else too. He's always gone at night, but he reappears in the morning."  
  
Lily and Teri just sat there. They had no idea what was going on, and well, neither Lily nor Teri was very fond of Peter. They didn't want to seem rude, so they just didn't say anything.  
  
"Do you think he went home for the holidays?" asked Remus.  
  
"He probably did," said James. "Leastwise his name wasn't on the list for the students staying at Hogwarts for the holiday."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, nothing of great import happened, except the full-moon. It was the first time Lily and Teri were with Remus when he transformed. It scared them to see him going through so much pain, but he quieted down after a few minutes and seemed fine after that.  
  
They had agreed to explore the mountains for those nights, and in doing so they found several caves that had passages that connected them. And the nice thing about those passages is that there were holes in the ceiling allowing light from the moon to shine in and light the way.  
  
Te first night after the full moon, two days before the holidays were over, the five traveled to the caves and set up a house-hold of sorts. They brought non-perishable food from the kitchens, blankets, water, and numerous other miscellaneous objects. Then, they set about making this a great hang-out spot.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
When classes started again they went about their busy schedules; Lily improved on her wandless magic, healing, and seeing, while the rest of the gang got back to learning all they would need for next year, and the end of the year exams.  
  
"I wish there was some way we could find out for sure who the betrayer is," Lily said to Teri one night in their room.  
  
"There might be," said Teri.  
  
"Wings, I don't like that look you've got in your eye. But you seem sure, so spill," said Lily.  
  
"I have a hunch that Peter is the one we're after, but I can't be sure. For all we know he's meeting some girlfriend somewhere for a private snogging session." Teri pause for effect, "So, we're going to make a list of suspects, like they do in muggle movies, and we're going to track them."  
  
"That's a great idea Wings, but there's a fault in your logic. How do we do it?" asked Lily.  
  
"That's the beauty of my plan. Now, I've been researching this idea for a while, and we can create a map of the castle and the forest. It will show who is where, by way of little dots, and we charm pieces of parchment to be like video screens. We enchant something in a corridor to be the camera, and we just label the parchment. Bah-dah-bing bah-dah-boom we have instant security cameras."  
  
"That's a great idea," said Lily, "too bad we didn't think of it sooner. Well, let's get started. We've got parchment, and ink, you seem to know the spells we need. And we can 'Accio' anything we need."  
  
Teri smiled, "Yes, let's."  
  
They busied themselves with preparations. First they drew the map; they drew from memory since they had already memorized the castle. Then, they enchanted it to make the people appear, and show where the moving rooms were; and as an added touch they charmed it to give the passwords to all the rooms. It took them three hours to get it right.  
  
When they were finished Lily yawned, "Well, it seems to work. We'll do the security cameras tomorrow after we figure out what the cameras are going to be."  
  
"This is a work of art Foxy," said Teri. "We should suggest it too the guys, and see if they can figure out how to make one. It would be like a race."  
  
Lily was already half asleep. Teri smiled, and lay down on her own bed, they were asleep in seconds.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Hey guys," said Teri that morning. She and Lily had brought their map with them to breakfast.  
  
"Look what we made," said Lily she showed them the map. "We wanted to challenge you to a contest. You make one of these, then, when you get it right, you make something original, and we'll make one just like whatever you do."  
  
The Marauders all smiled, Remus stood up, "You've got yourself a deal."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
By the end of the week Lily and Teri had finished setting up their security system. They watched everything, and everyone. The only thing they noticed was amiss was that every night, at the same time, the portrait for the Slytherin Common Room, and the Fat Lady opened. The problem was that the people who opened the portraits were invisible, and nameless. Their dots were just that, dots.  
  
Lily and Teri puzzled over this, but soon it was crunch time for the final exams. There was one week before the end of the term. Lily and Teri spent more time studying than monitoring the security. Even the Marauders could be found somewhere in the castle studying in one way, shape, or form.  
  
The finals were only two days away; Lily and Teri spent the day quizzing each other on Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, and all the other subjects. Lily helped Teri with DADA, and Teri in turn helped Lily with her seeing.  
  
Finally the week of the finals arrived.  
  
Potions was fairly chaos-less, with the exception of the end when Peter's aging potion turned his partner, Snape (they were the only people who no one wanted to work with), into a baby, and Snape started to cry causing the Professor to go into hysterics.  
  
Charms was a relative disaster when Sirius over did his coloring charm, due to nerves, and turned Remus an odd shade of green, the charm wouldn't come off, and the worst part was that along with Remus *looking* like he was going to spew, he did, every five minutes. It took Lily, James, and Flitwick nearly an hour to set him straight.  
  
They were all exhausted when they got to Transfiguration. Luckily nothing happened during this exam. It was wonderful. The only thing worth mentioning was that someone turned the quill, which was supposed to turn into a red gown, into a red cockatoo.  
  
That was the end of the first day. They barely got to their beds before they collapsed.  
  
Little did they know that the next day would be a complete disaster. They would look back on that day and laugh, but as it happened, it was complete chaos.  
(A/N: Should I stop? Or would you like to know what happens?  
I think we all know the answer to that . . . so ON WITH THE FINALS!)  
They woke up the next morning, most of the students groaning the entire time, and most of them managed to drag themselves out of their beds early enough to catch breakfast.  
  
The first exam the sixth year Gryffindors had was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lily went to the Hospital Wing where she would be tested on wandless magic, seeing, and healing. The rest of the gang went to the DADA classroom for the written portion of their test.  
  
Lily completed the wandless magic without fault, she had some trouble with the seeing, because some of the objects were transformed to something resembling their original form, making it more difficult to see through the spell, but she aced the healing, hands down.  
  
The rest of the gang didn't have as much luck with their DADA exam. They had to complete an obstacle course going through things they had covered that year, and when they went though it Teri, Sirius, James, and Remus all got caught at the end by the boggart, and Peter, well, lets just say that Peter didn't really get further than six feet into the course before he got stuck.  
  
Then, they had History of Magic. This is where the day got interesting.  
  
Most of the students fell asleep during the exam, and half an hour before the exam was over only Lily and Teri were still awake.  
  
Lily was just checking over her essay when she heard Peter mumbling in his sleep. He was clutching his wand in his hand, and everything he mumbled one of the spells he had heard Lily of James utter at one point during their fights. The order he spoke them was the odd thing, they were in alphabetical order, and his wand was pointing at Professor Binn's desk.  
  
The desk was turning into rather strange and odd shapes, it started to move, and break apart. It broke into hundreds of pieces of wood, and these pieces of wood started running around. Teri yelped, then, she started to scream when two of the chips bit her. This effectively woke up everyone but Peter, who slept like the dead.  
  
It was utter bedlam. People ran around, screaming, ran into the corridors, screaming, back into the classroom, screaming, and into other classrooms, yup, you guessed it, screaming.  
  
The professors all came to the History of Magic room, and did their best to quell the manic wood chips. Unfortunately, Peter was still sleeping, still muttering spells. Someone finally knocked him over and waking him up and making him drop his wand.  
  
Several hours later the wood chips had been trapped and burned. Everyone had been informed that their exams would be continued an extra day in order to make up for the lost time.  
  
They dragged themselves, once again, up to their dorms and, once again, readied themselves for another day of exams.  
  
Finally two days later the exams were over and the castle finally set to some semblance of order.  
  
Just one week until the end of the year, when they would get their scores back, and leave for the last summer they would spend looking forward to another year at Hogwarts. 


	29. Day Before Last

Day Before Last  
  
The finals were finally over. They would get their scores tomorrow, and they would be going home in a week.  
  
"I'll call you and see if you can come over to my house for a while," Teri said to Lily.  
  
"Thanks Wings," said Lily despondently.  
  
They were sitting in their room, Teri and Lily were packing most of their things, they wanted to be ready for "departure day" as they called it. Everything but their clothes was in the trunks.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
In the boys' dorms:  
  
They boys, unlike Lily and Teri, were practically bubbling. They all came from rich wizarding families and, being so, they all lived near each other, and would frequently end up at one another's houses for days on end.  
  
"I can't wait for this summer," said Sirius, bouncing on Peter's bed. "I talked to Teri, and she said that if she can get her parents to agree she's going to come over during the summer."  
  
James wasn't listening. He was worried about Lily, he remembered asking her about her family and her telling him she had a sister, then, going on to elaborate on her parents, completely ignoring her sister. He hadn't pressed it; it was obvious that she and her sister weren't as close as they could be. Maybe he could ask Teri.  
  
"Sirius get off my bed," said Peter, it seemed like he was trying to pack, and Sirius, having his amazing ability for placement, was sitting on the largest lump of cloth on the bed.  
  
Sirius moved over, and continued to bounce.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily fell asleep before dinner and Teri didn't bother disturbing her.  
  
Teri went down to dinner. Sat next to Sirius and sighed, putting food on her plate.  
  
The boys all looked at her (she had a sad face, kind of depressed, and introverted), "What's wrong baby?" asked Sirius.  
  
"Nothing I can tell you," replied Teri.  
  
They could tell by looking at her that it had something to do with Lily. The Marauders looked at each other meaningfully.  
  
They finished dinner, and Teri made a sandwich to take up to Lily.  
  
They walked up to the common room together silently, Sirius' arms wrapped around Teri.  
  
Teri went back to her room, and left the sandwich on the table for Lily when she woke up.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily woke up to an owl pecking at the window. It was Teri, apparently she had gone out for an early morning fly and the wind had blown the window closed.  
  
She opened the window and laughed when Teri transformed looking rather ruffled.  
  
"Ya know Wings, it's rather funny to see the boys in the morning when you wake them up in animal form," said Lily. "I did it once, they absolutely freaked."  
  
"Sounds like fun," said Teri smiling, "but whatever we do we're going to get there inside. It's really cold and the wind is evil."  
  
Lily started laughing again. She tapped the brick leading to the boys' dorm; they transformed, and slipped through the opening.  
  
Lily jumped on Remus and started to bark in his ear. (A/N: in this story animals can all understand each other.) She told him that there was a rampaging rhinosorpine (something between a rhino and a porcupine) after him. It didn't work, so Lily nodded at Teri who was sitting on one of the rafters, and Teri began to 'whoot'.  
  
Once again, it didn't work, so instead Lily jumped on Remus' head, and Teri started to peck Sirius' nose. It got them up.  
  
Sirius and Remus both jumped up, screeched, and leaped over to Peter's bed, seeing how Lily and Teri had both moved on to James.  
  
It took them a while but they got him up, and the other boys had woken Peter up.  
  
When James woke up, he grabbed Lily and his wand, muttered a spell, and Lily transformed back.  
  
She gave him a quick kiss, right before she smiled.  
  
Life was great. But it would all soon be over.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
They got their final scores back. Surprise, surprise, Lily and James were at the top of their classes, Teri, Remus, and Sirius not far behind, tied for second, and Peter, well, like always he was in the lower half, but he still passed.  
  
Four more days and the year would be over, they would all go home.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Master?" squeaked a small figure, "The year is almost over, what are you going to do?"  
  
"Never fear you fool," came the icy reply, "It will all be taken care of."  
  
Like always the shorter figure shuddered, it was time; the time of vengeance for his Master. It would be over soon, at least he hoped so.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It was the last day of the year; they would be boarding the Hogwarts Express at ten the next morning.  
  
Lily packed the rest of her clothes and sighed. *I wish I could stay forever. I don't know what's going to happen to me after school,* she thought sadly. *I have all the muggle skills that I could possibly need, but I don't know what I'm going to do with them. If I go to work for the Ministry I won't need them, but if I decided to live as a muggle what will I do with my magic?* She wanted to scream. *WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE SO HARD?!*  
  
She finished putting everything away and went over to the common room. Teri and Sirius were taking the time to have their faces' get reacquainted, Remus and Peter were in the middle of a chess game, and James was no where in sight.  
  
She went to go find him.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
He was in their cave. Just sitting there.  
  
"Hey," said Lily, "you oh-kee-doh-kee?"  
  
"Yeah," he said, "I was just thinking. I mean, what am I going to do after school? I want to become an auror (spelling), but my father and his father, and his father and every male before him has been a doctor at St. Mungo's. In fact, my ancestor was one of the founding doctors, and well, before that, they were always healers, or shamans, or had something to do with medicine." He sighed, "I don't know how to tell my dad that I don't want to follow tradition."  
  
Lily sat down in front of him and put her head in his lap, "Tell him you want to start a tradition. That way you are in a way following tradition."  
  
"I guess," James said.  
  
Suddenly, they heard hushed voices. They sat up and crept down one of the passages to the source of the noise.  
  
"Master," said an eager voice, "when will we attack?"  
  
The cold voice was like an ice cube down their backs, "Tomorrow, at ten, the students will all be on the train, and the professors will be at the castle, at least most of them. She will be there, away from that pile of stones they call a school, that spell she cast at Christmas prevents me from touching any of the students while in the castle."  
  
"Wonderful," said another voice, it was female.  
  
Seemingly speaking telepathically they transformed and slipped out of the caves.  
  
When they got outside Lily leaped onto James' back and James ran faster than ever back to the castle. 


	30. Preparing for Battle

Preparing for Battle  
  
~End Last Chapter~  
  
Lily and James ran back to the castle. . .  
  
~**************~  
  
James was all out of breath when they got to the castle; Lily jumped off his back, and climbed through one of the open windows near the front door.  
  
She ran as fast as her legs would carry her up to Dumbledore's office. There she transformed and nearly shouted the password.  
  
As soon as the gargoyle was out of the way she sprinted up the stairs to find Dumbledore writing a letter to some unknown correspondent.  
  
"DUMBLEDORE!!! Voldemort is going to attack, *gasp* tomorrow *gasp* before the train leaves, *gasp* just after *gasp* everyone gets on." She went on to explain everything she had heard.  
  
Dumbledore stood up, "Lily, I want you to go find Sally, she should be in her common room. The password is 'fairy dance'. Go hurry. We don't have much time."  
  
Lily once again sprinted down the stairs and off to the Hufflepuff common room.  
  
When she got there, she gasped the password, and went through the portrait.  
  
"SALLY!!!" Sally came out of one of the dorms, and Lily proceeded to tell her exactly what she told Dumbledore.  
  
"Lily go back to your common room. I need you to wait there for further instructions. Only tell people on a need to know basis."  
  
Lily nodded and jogged back to her common room.  
  
~************~  
  
James collapsed in front of the Entrance Hall, just before he transformed.  
  
Several minutes later he managed to get up, and part drag, part crawl, and part walk himself up to the Fat Lady.  
  
He whispered the password, just before he lay down in the portrait hole.  
  
Remus saw him enter, and when James collapsed he rushed over and yelled for Sirius to come and help him get James off the floor.  
  
Together they managed to get James into bed. James was half awake while this happened, and he was barely able to get the story out before he fainted.  
  
~************~  
  
Lily came in fifteen minutes later.  
  
She was just as beat up as James, and she collapsed in the same spot. The boys and Teri got her to their room, and put her on Sirius' bed.  
  
Lily woke up about two hours later, she told Teri everything, and Teri helped her back to her own bed. There she collapsed just before instructing Teri to tell Remus and Sirius everything.  
  
All too soon it was the next day. . .  
  
(A/N: It's a good place to stop. What do you think? I want to, but I won't.  
  
On with the story.)  
The next day was the day everyone would leave. People were preparing their luggage for transportation to the horseless carriages, they were making last minute checks of their dorms to make sure they didn't forget anything they would need.  
  
When they were finished they all went down the last breakfast of the year. At nine Dumbledore stood up, "Ladies and gentlemen, there has been a change of plans, I need all of the seventh years, and those students that know who they are, to stay after breakfast."  
  
That was when people started talking; only a few of the seventh years knew what was going on.  
  
Everyone left except, the prefects, Remus, Teri, and Sirius.  
  
When all of the younger years had left, Dumbledore began again, "Voldemort is going to attack the train. I need all of you to be on your guard, and on patrol. You will each be divided into groups, and sent to patrol a specific area. You will go home on a later train, your parents have been informed of this change, and they have all agreed that this is the best course of action. You have nothing to fear if you follow your instructions."  
  
Teachers came up to the front and began calling names. Those called followed the teacher, until only the prefects were left.  
  
Dumbledore said to them, "You will be assigned in pairs to each of the groups, you will be in charge of those groups." He saw that three of the prefects were looking worried, "Don't worry about being in command, you were chosen for your leadership skills, along with your remarkable academic abilities. You can do this, you have to." He quickly assigned groups, gave them their final instructions and sent them to their groups.  
  
Lily and Remus were paired together. Teri was with one of the other prefects, and Sirius and James were partnered up together.  
  
Lily and Remus were in charge of the end of Hogsmeade, the area near the rocky hills and mountains. They set up a half circle so that their sentries were separated, but with in hearing range, and seeing distance.  
  
Lily and Remus would travel around and check up on the sentries, and they would also be keeping everything in view via the Shrieking Shack.  
  
~************~  
  
James and Sirius were given the edge of the forest near Hagrid's hut. They had an alternating pattern, some of their sentries were outside the forest, and some were in it, none too far in so that they could not be heard, but in the forest just the same.  
  
They would direct from the hut, and they gave specific instructions to their charges to run straight to the hut if they saw anything, and if you saw someone running towards the hut, you were to start running too.  
  
~***********~  
  
All of the leaders were given a Stay-Bright-Flame candle so that they could speak keep contact with the teachers in charge of their region.  
  
Nothing happened until ten. 


	31. And So It Begins

And So It Begins  
  
It was so sudden.  
  
One of the people in Lily and Remus' group heard a rustle in the leaves. He was positioned on the furthest point of the half circle. Turning around suddenly he saw the tail end of a black cloak. He stayed put just long enough to determine the figures direction, then, he started moving as fast as he could without making any noise. When he was sure he was out of hearing range he broke into a dead run, straight for the Shrieking Shack.  
  
All the people between him and Hogsmeade saw or heard him, and followed as fast as was humanly possible.  
  
When the young man got to the Shack he almost knocked the door off the hinges. Lily came out, and he reported what he had seen just before he passed out.  
  
Lily kneeled over him to check his vitals, and when she was sure that he was okay, only scared and exhausted from his nearly half mile sprint, she levitated him to the bed, and made sure he was comfortable while Remus contacted the teachers and other leaders via the Stay-Bright-Candle.  
  
Then, they sent five people to retrieve the other half of the half circle, and waited for further instructions from Dumbledore.  
  
~**********~  
  
James and Sirius were in Hagrid's hut when they received word from Remus. They set themselves on their guard, and James went to warn his group.  
  
It was only five minutes until they received word from the group. Everyone had apparently seen the runner and followed her back to the hut.  
  
She had seen three figures in cloaks walking through the forest towards Hogsmeade, and the train that had been delayed half an hour. The train would leave in twenty-five minutes.  
  
After informing Dumbledore, and their teacher in charge, James and Sirius were told to take their group to Hogsmeade to meet up with the other groups.  
  
~*********~  
  
They all met at the Three Broomsticks at 10:15.  
  
Dumbledore was standing and everyone else was either standing by a wall or sitting in one of the chairs, "We need to protect the train. You know who you are, you will board the train and stand guard there; you will each receive a Stay-Bright-Candle. Go."  
  
They left, and the remaining people were all looking expectantly at Dumbledore, "The rest of you are to stay guard here. There will be another train leaving to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters in an hour; you will go home on that. Be careful, if you need help, use your candles."  
  
~*********~  
  
It had begun. The train left peacefully. Something was wrong; He knew that Lily wasn't on that train. He was bidding his time. 


	32. Confrontation

Confrontation  
  
They had waited for the second train.  
  
All of their things had been put in the Three Broomsticks in case they had a need of it during the train ride. They got to the train, put their stuff in one of the compartments, and flopped down on one of the seats.  
  
Lily, James, Teri, Sirius, and Remus were all in one of the rear compartments. It was silent. The train hadn't started moving.  
  
That was when they heard the shout. The students had all been warned to stay on the train no matter what they saw or heard outside the train. The train had been spelled against intruders, and had been magicked to leave on it's own at precisely eleven o'clock. The five of them jumped up, and rushed to the back door of the train. Lily burst out first; the train hadn't left yet, to see Dumbledore bound and gagged lying in a full body bind unconscious in the middle of the dirt packed street. The other teachers were either unconscious or to hurt to do anything about the cloaked figure.  
  
Lily leaped off the train before anyone could stop her, and was followed by other four hell-bent on keeping her alive to see the next day.  
  
Lily ran over to the injured teachers, and with a quick touch she healed their cuts and moved onto the next person. The figures were still at the other end of the street, their leader standing in front laughing.  
  
The mass of black cloaks moved forward just as Lily healed the last teacher, "Hello my little fox."  
  
"Voldemort," said Lily not looking up, in a hard voice. "Leave, Dumbledore has undoubtedly told you already, 'you are not welcome here.'"  
  
"You foolish girl," He said, "You have no idea what you have gotten yourself into. You know what I want, and right now, I want you to swear that you will either not have the child, or you will give it to me when it is born."  
  
"Voldemort, you know as well as I that I would do nothing. I have to swear by my own free will, and without that present the spell will not work."  
  
"I know that you stupid girl. Now, I will wait as long as it takes."  
  
As the two were talking the teachers, and Teri, James, Sirius, and Remus had moved to stand in front of her. The teachers had revived the unconscious teachers, and had de-spelled Dumbledore.  
  
"Voldemort, I want you to leave," said Lily.  
  
"I won't, and you can't make me," said Voldemort, oddly enough what he said, though childish, did not sound at all immature.  
  
"Yes I can," said Lily, "making you leave does not require your consent, forced or not."  
  
"*Expelliarmus.*"  
  
Lily's wand flew from her hand to one of the figures standing in support behind Voldemort.  
  
Voldemort laughed, "You see you my foolish flower, I have the power to keep you prisoner, like I did before, and there is nothing you can do about it. You could only do wandless magic by accident. You wouldn't dare though; I know you wouldn't dream of hurting anyone, or anything, even me. And accidental magic is too unreliable to be used."  
  
"You fool," said Lily, "you have no idea the extent of my powers. I can do anything." Lily waved her hand. And all of the cloaked people froze; not that they had been moving, but now they didn't even so much as breath. They were frozen.  
  
Voldemort swiveled, "What did you do?" he demanded angrily.  
  
"Nothing," she replied airily, "I merely froze them, and you could undo it with out the least bit of effort. I was just showing you that though you have a wand I have my magic."  
  
Voldemort muttered a counter-spell with his wand pointed behind him and un- froze his followers.  
  
"LEAVE," Lily said again harshly. She waved her hand again.  
  
Voldemort started to fade, "I'll be back!" he shouted just before he vanished.  
  
"Foxy," Teri said rushing up to a nearly fainting Lily, "are you okay?!"  
  
Teri and James caught Lily just before she passed out. The train had left, and they were stuck in Hogsmeade until they could find another mode of transportation.  
  
Some of the teachers had gone back to Hogwarts to get some rest before heading back home, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and the gang headed for the Shrieking Shack.  
  
James lay Lily down on the least mutilated bed in the house, and when he had made sure she was comfortable, he rushed off to get chairs.  
  
Returning shortly he set the chairs down and they all sat down.  
  
Dumbledore revived Lily, and when she was fully awake he said, "Lily, are you alright?"  
  
She nodded and tried to sit up, just to be pushed back down again by both Teri and James.  
  
"Lily do you know what happened?"  
  
Lily nodded again.  
  
"Very well, you'll stay here. Professor McGonagall will stay with you five, you can stay here. I'll write your parents and let them know what happened. You can go home whenever you're ready." With that he left. 


	33. The End, of This Year

The End, of This Year  
  
James held onto Lily's hand like he would never let go, *Come on Lily. Wake up. I can't stand to lose you now.*  
  
~**********~  
  
About an hour later Lily's eyes fluttered open, "Is everyone okay?"  
  
"Foxy, what is wrong with you?" demanded Teri, "You pass out for over an hour, and when you wake up you ask about everyone else!" She countered her sudden outburst by crying all over Sirius.  
  
"Wings, I'm fine." Lily turned to James, "By the by, how do we plan to get home?"  
  
"We're going to Floo to Remus' house. He's about equal distance from you and Teri's house, and mine and Sirius' house," said James, still holding onto her for dear life.  
  
~*********~  
  
When Lily was able to get up, they used the fire place in the Shrieking Shack to Floo to Remus' house. (Professor McGonagall was still with them.)  
  
When they got there they found their parents all standing around, all looking worried.  
  
The parents bombarded them the instant they stepped out of the fireplace. "We were so worried", "Are you alright?", "You are going straight to bed the instant you get home", and so forth.  
  
When things had settled down Professor McGonagall said, "If you will excuse your children I have some important matters to address."  
  
The parents all sat down, and Remus led them to the kitchen to find some food.  
  
"Wow," said Remus, "They look awful, like they've been tearing their hair out for the last three hours."  
  
"Yeah," agreed Sirius.  
  
"Well, let's eat," said Remus trying to lighten the mood, and succeeding beautifully.  
  
~*********~  
  
When Professor McGonagall was done talking with the parents the parents came into the kitchen to retrieve their children.  
  
"When asked if they could visit each other over the summer the universal response was "We'll see."  
  
The end of the year was over. Summer had begun. They could only hope that things would get better before they got worse.  
  
A/N: I'm going to write a sequel. Hope you enjoyed. 


End file.
